@markspurrell Hi, please can you take the psu wires out of the terminals and take a close up picture of the wire ends, in the pic it looks like one of the wires might be shorting out, but it's really difficult to tell. The wires look a bit odd so would be good to have a close up pic to see exactly what is coming out of the sheathing. Have you also cut the trace on the back of the motor shield as mentioned in the original post on this thread? I'll try and help if I can 👍
@markspurrell Hi, please can you take the psu wires out of the terminals and take a close up picture of the wire ends, in the pic it looks like one of the wires might be shorting out, but it's really difficult to tell. The wires look a bit odd so would be good to have a close up pic to see exactly what is coming out of the sheathing. Have you also cut the trace on the back of the motor shield as mentioned in the original post on this thread? I'll try and help if I can 👍
Hi, no problem, thanks for trying to help. Here is the picture:
I cut the dc jack off of an old 12v 4a laptop power supply I had lying around because I didn't have a female jack to wire to the terminals. I tested the wires when plugged in and the left wire coming out of the white sheath was outputting 12v and the right wire was outputting -12v, so I got the polarity right and the power supply is working.
@markspurrell This might not be it, but put the PSU wires back in how they were, making 100% sure that no wires are touching each other/shorting. Then I think the wires with your fan are the wrong way around in your pic. The red wire should be in the positive terminal, and the black in the negative? I think, double check/give that a go. Hope it works 🤞
@mbrown278 Good catch on the reversed wires. Somehow missed that. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the problem however. Reconnected the power supply after reversing the fan wires and still can't get the thing to move. No lights on the motor shield either. Possibly a dead board? Not sure. I've ordered a cytron MDD10 to replace it because I want to try and run my delta pfc1212de fans. Supposed to run at 6000 RPM and draw about 4.8 amps each lol.
@markspurrell How are you trying to test them, if it's by clicking test in Simhub, you have to click test several times very quickly for it to work. Have you increased the minimum force setting-try putting that quite high just while testing. I take it that if you connect the fan wires direct to the psu wires that the fan does work?
The Cytron Shield will definitely be needed for those fans!
@mbrown278 cheers, I’ll give that a try later on this week after I’ve got it secured down properly
@mbrown278 yep, I've done all of that. And the fans work by themselves if plugged directly into the power supply. I even switched fans, nothing seems to work. Dead board is my guess. Guess I'm waiting for the new one!
Thank you for sharing your work.
I followed your instructions for the MD10 single channel.
If I use the "test" button on the MD10, the fans spin at full power.
I can run the fans for a long time, with no noticable heat coming from the shield.
If I install the shield in the UNO Rev 3, and drive the fans with SimHub, it all works as it should, until a random but short amount of time where the shield power led goes off and the shield needs to be reset (unplugged and replugged).
When I drive the shield with SimHub and the Arduino, I find that a small cap and chip get very hot.
The Arduino is causing an overheating issue on some parts.
I tried with the arduino powered via USB (as it was before) and also with providing additional 12 v power. It's the same result.
Thoughts?
@guytrgn that's the first time I have heard of that. You shouldn't need to power the arduino Uno with the 12v, just usb. What psu are you using for the fans and what are the power requirements of the fans? Is it the cap/chip on the arduino or on the shield that gets hot? Just thinking whether your fans are trying to draw too much current, it's unlikely though as the limit on the MD10 should be high enough
The fans are the same as the fans you listed in your youtube - 12V 1.40A
Powersupply states 12V 3.0A Max - 36W
The behaviour is random, it's not like the temperature on the small cap on the right edge of the MD10 shield next to the larger cap is creeping up in temperature. Even on a low ouput power (25%), it will stop functioning randomly due to heating up.
When I originally put everything together, the + and - were incorrect for the 12V wires. I had to reverse the wires for the board to power up. Perhaps this damaged the board.
I will try ordering an MDD10 instead and see if I have better luck.
Issue has been resolved. I replaced the cheap power supply I purchased with an old laptop style supply I had hanging around. Everything is stable (now I need a project for the extra MDD10 I puchased!)
This is a great guide and really helped me to get my fabs set up. It's all working now using the V3 motorshield but the main chip on the shield is getting pretty hot. Is this normal?
I've stuck a heat sink on it but is that enough and does the motorshield shut down if it gets too hot?
Using the same fans as in the guide but a 12v 2a power supply as that's all I had. Would a 3a one help to keep the temperature down?
Thanks!