Electrical – Feeding microcontroller and linear actuators (motors) with the same power supply

dc motormicrocontrollermotor controllerpower supplyvoltage-regulator

I have already made a diagram using a motor controller.

The details of the actuators are:

  • Input voltage: 12VDC
  • Max Load: 750N(168.607lbs)
  • Stroke Length: 16 inch
  • Travel Speed: 12mm/s
  • Duty Cyle: 25%.

Could you please check if it is ok?

Some of my concerns are:

  • Be sure if the feed of 12 volts for the motors, and 5 volts for Arduino are correct and can live together as shown.

  • Be sure if the wiring for the Arduino, driver and motors is correct since it looks kind of simple.

Diagram1
enter image description here

I want to know if this is the natural approach by doing it with a voltage regulator to feed the Arduino and with 12V 10A power supply to feed the motors, or if there are other, better options to make the circuit feed only using one power supply (12V, 10A).

MDD10 Datasheet Link: https://www.robotshop.com/media/files/content/c/cyt/pdf/cytron-10a-7-30v-dual-channel-dc-motor-driver-shield-datasheet.pdf

UPDATE

I have increased power supply to 13A, also changed the linear voltage regulator (7805) to a switching voltage regulator (OKI-78SR-5), what do you think about this approach?

Diagram2
enter image description here

Or I should try with the 12V DC Vin of Arduino(I understand that it works with a linear voltage regulator)? Being this option, it could be maybe with a voltage pre-regulation stage(from 12V to 9V for example) or maybe connecting directly to the jack.

Diagram3
enter image description here
Thanks, Best Regards.

I'm adding a fourth diagram..

Diagram4
enter image description here

The orange color is used to represent a heavy wire which goes from the 12v power supply to the ground of the motor driver, from the ground of the motor driver goes a normal cable to the arduino ground, and from the arduino ground a normal cable to C2 then to the ground of the voltage regulator then to C1.

This is to avoid noise caused by the motor driver to the arduino and the voltage regulator.

Best Answer

I suggest you use a 9V linear regulator as a 'pre-regulator' to power the Arduino through the Vin pin or DC input jack. That way any noise on the 12V supply has to get through two stages of regulation before it can affect the Arduino.

The Arduino Uno's DC input jack has a diode in series for reverse voltage protection. This has the advantage that the power input can momentarily drop to zero without discharging the input capacitor. The same technique can be used on the pre-regulator. The circuit would look like this:-

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

The voltage regulator ground should be connected directly to the Arduino ground, then to the motor driver ground, with another heavy wire going from the power supply to the motor driver ground. This prevents motor current from flowing through the ground wire between the regulator, Arduino and driver, which could cause glitches or worse.