I am using two motors ( from old two drill machines – same kind, these are 3.6v motors ), connected to arduino + arduino motor shield seeed studio v2.
I tried to use 18v/1.2a battery that was laying at home (from old machine ) what I have noticed is that motors are running for 3-5 seconds than stop, one of the red lights start blinking in the motor shield, then it stops for 3-5 seconds then it works again and loop.
Note: the motors are working when I connect them directly to 4.5 or 6v battery. But when I try to assemle everything , it doesn't work.
I tried 14v battery I noticed the same thing ( but slower, and this is something logical ), the battery of 9v don't make any move ( even by powering th arduino alone (using 9v) and the motors alone (9v) ).
What are things that I should consider here, any thoughts.
What did I miss? And what kind if battery should I use ??
Best Answer
This is a hard question to answer without knowing a few more things about your components.
Since they run at a pretty low voltage, I'd guess the motors require quite a bit of current, or they're relatively low power machines. That's probably why the 9V batteries don't work. Regular 9V alkaline batteries can't provide much current.
One thing you could try is using your 18v battery, but running the motor at a very low duty cycle setting. Are you using the shield based on the MC33932? If so, it supports duty cycle control. Theoretically, you shouldn't exceed 20% duty cycle with an 18v battery (3.6/18=0.2 or 20%).