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ranenbg / Arduino-FFB-wheel

Stand-alone DirectInput USB device recognized in Windows as a joystick with force feedback functionality, based on BRWheel by Fernando Igor from 2017.
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How would i make this work without a motor driver #63

Closed n00dlephr0g closed 2 months ago

n00dlephr0g commented 2 months ago

Not really an issue but a question.. the title may make this seem silly, but i plan on building a sort of hand held steering device along with analogue pedals all within the form factor of a controller, and this means that i wont need that much torque or power. Is there any way to just drive a small dc motor with a pwm signal or something similar? if not what would be a good alternative to the massive motor driver?

ranenbg commented 2 months ago

Hi, you can try to use L298N (there is also an smd package). You can't power the motor directly from arduino pwm pins as it will probably burn.

I'm not sure what is your form factor, but an h-bridge is a very simple circuit to make, that requires only 4 transistors. I just did a quick google search and there are a ton of available circuits, ranging from simple to more advanced with its own microcontroler. I'm guessing you will do your own pcb to place some buttons and arduino, so you could easily integrate an h-bridge into it. There are plenty of smd mosfets that you could use for it, you just need to figure out the correct current/voltage ratings for the motor you plan to use. If you use batteries, I think with 2x3.7V and reasonable mAh capacity, you can make it work.