Using motor with 014M and Darlington driver buffer chip

[peg]

Good morning

I have the PICAXE-14M Starter Pack (AXE004U) but when I tried to add a motor it gave error message when I tried to download. It works fine with LEDs. Any clues

Thanks

 

[inglewoodpete]

"It works fine with LEDs." Do you mean when you download code to the 14M2 on the AXE004 board, it works when it is wired to some LEDs?

It will help members if you tell us what the error message is. Otherwise, we'll just be guessing.

 

[peg]

Yes - the LEDs work fine and it finds COM port. But when I add motor it says COM PORt not found

 

[inglewoodpete]

On the same board?

 

[papaof2]

A diagram would help - such as which pins are the motor driver connected to and are any other pins changed?

 

[peg]

Hi

No - LEDS was connected to the output of the Darlington pair chip. (it is part of the PICAXE 014 project board). When I removed LED and replaced with motor I could not download. When I put LED back on it started downloading again.

 

[neiltechspec]

Current permenantly flowing through the motor & killing the power supply.

 

[peg]

Connected a second power supply to motor and now works

 

[erco]

I usually start a new project with a separate motor power supply. Per neiltechspec, motors and servos can pull so much current that they pull the supply voltage down, which blanks the controller. Glad you go it going.

 

[Technoman]

In case you need it, in adding very few components you probably make it work from a single power supply.

 

[erco]

BTW that Darlington driver is notoriously bad, as in inefficient. H bridges are cheap and much better, or even just one mosfet for one-directional motor use.