Pololu High-Power Simple Motor Controller G2 18v25

The Simple Motor Controllers are versatile, general-purpose single-channel motor controllers for brushed, DC motors. Wide operating voltage ranges and the ability to deliver up to several hundred watts in a small form factor make these controllers suitable for many motor control applications. With a variety of supported interfaces—­USB for direct connection to a computer, TTL serial and I²C for use with embedded systems, RC hobby servo pulses for use as an RC-controlled electronic speed control (ESC), and analog voltages for use with a potentiometer or analog joystick—­and a wide array of configurable settings, these motor controllers make it easy to add basic control of brushed DC motors to a variety of projects. A free configuration utility for Windows simplifies initial setup of the device and allows for in-system testing and monitoring of the controller via USB.

The SMC G2 18v25 operates from 6.5 V to 30 V and can deliver a continuous output current of 25 A without a heat sink. Note that 30 V is the absolute maximum for this controller; the maximum recommended operating voltage is 24 V, and the maximum recommended nominal battery voltage is 18 V. For applications using higher voltages (such as 24 V batteries), we recommend the higher-voltage SMC G2 24v12 or SMC G2 24v19.

If you need to identify which version you have, you can just plug it into a computer through USB and the SMC software will tell you. For quick visual identification without a computer, you can distinguish this version from the identically sized SMC G2 24v19 by the number 150 on top of the tall silver electrolytic capacitors.

This version has header pins and terminal blocks included but not soldered, so soldering is required to use it.

The SMC ships with a 0.1? breakaway male header strip and two 2-pin 5mm terminal blocks. You can solder the terminal blocks to the four large through-holes to make your motor and motor power connections (see our short video on terminal block installation), or you can solder a couple of 2-pin pieces of the 0.1? header strip into the smaller through-holes above and below these larger holes.

Pieces from the 0.1? header strip can be soldered into the small holes on the logic connection side of the board to enable use with solderless breadboards, perfboards, or 0.1? connectors. For the most compact installation, you can just solder wires directly to the holes.

Key features of the SMC G2 family

• Simple bidirectional control of one brushed DC motor
• Five communication or control options:
  1. USB interface for direct connection to a PC
  2. Logic-level (TTL) serial interface for use with a microcontroller
  3. I²C interface for use with a microcontroller
  4. Hobby radio control (RC) pulse width interface for direct connection to an RC receiver or RC servo controller
  5. 0 V to 3.3 V analog voltage interface for direct connection to potentiometers and analog joysticks
• Simple configuration and calibration over USB with a free configuration program for Windows
• Reverse-voltage protection
• Hardware current limiting with a configurable threshold
• Current sensing

Note: A USB A to Micro-B cable (not included) is required to connect this controller to a computer.