Vex Motor Controllers

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
1

Hi,

We are a robotics team from Canada, we have found a need for a motor controller that converts the signal from a VEX Microprocessor to a DC motor (for another non-vex competition). The part number is “MOTOR-CONTROLLER-100”, unfortunately, it has been discontinued by InnovationFirst.

We already tried a local retailer, and I emailed a few resellers around the world to see if anyone has them. Is there anything else I can do to get the part?

Thanks for any replies.

2

We have the replacement for these coming out within the next few months.
Please email [email protected] if you desperately need some before then, and we’ll see what we can do.

3

That will be great - I can’t wait to see what you come out with! I am assuming that it will be a new product specifically designed for controlling DC motors and not just the controls from the inside of the VEX motor like the old one was.

Any details that you could give out yet?

4

Is the new model available before mid april?

5

No it will likely not be available until early May.

6

Positron,

I have a couple of suggestions:

  1. Have you tried asking explicitly if anyone here has one or more VEX motor controllers with which he’d be willing to part?

  2. Have you considered using some other part that performs the same function? If this is not for a VEX competition, you might be better served by something else, particularly if you’re looking to run a substantially larger motor. If you search the VEX forum, I believe you’ll find quite a bit of guidance on running non-VEX motors with a VEX controller.

Happy Hunting,
Eric

7

For fun, we hooked up a hobby R/C speed controller (from an R/C race car) and motor to a PWM motor port of the Vex. It was just a matter of changing the gender of the connectors and figuring out what values to send for the range of forward, reverse, and brake. It ran the DC can motor just fine. It required a separate battery connected to the speed control to provide power to the motor.

-Glenn

8

There are many pwm speed controllers online just look around. If you are in a vex competition then I think you need a “genuine” vex controller but if your not then I don’t see why you couldn’t use a non vex one.

Check out Sparkfun

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=179

There are many to choose from and most support 2 motors with lots of cool features. A few of them support pwm which should be able to interface with the vex kit without a lot of tinkering. The other ones are serial controlled which means you would need a serial connection to the device of some kind to control it.