L298N motor loses power at certain height in elevator project

TECHNICAL SUPPORT Sensors & Modules
1

Customer:

I have an elevator project using a Maxon 12V DC motor with a gearbox connected through an L298N to Arduino. The problem is that the motor loses power—at a certain height, the voltage drops to 0.8V. I tried connecting a 19V power supply to get 15V at the motor due to the voltage drop across the driver itself, but the same thing happens. When I connect that same motor directly to a 12V power supply, everything works normally. I’m not sure if the problem is in the L298N, because according to the datasheet the motor doesn’t exceed 2A at startup, which is within the L298N’s rating. Would your DRV8484 driver work better than my L298N?

Original message (Croatian)

Pozdrav, Imam projekt dizala i koristim maxon 12v dc motor s reduktorom povezan preko L298N na arduino,problem mi se dogada da motor izgubi snagu,tj.napon na nekoj odredenoj visini padne na 0.8 V.,probao sam cak i spojiti izvor napajanja 19V da na motoru dobijem 15 v,zbog pada napona na samom driveru,medutim ista je situacija. Kada taj isti motor spojim direktno na izvor napajanja 12v sve radi normalno,sad mi nije jasno jel problem u L298n,jer po datashetu motor pri pokretanju ne prelazi 2A koliko L298N moze dati? Zanima me jel bi vas driver drv8484 radio bolje od ovog mog L298N?
Hvala,lp

Originally submitted via email support on 6 July 2023. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.

2

Soldered Support:

If you’re losing voltage, that would mean either the motor is drawing a large current or the driver isn’t working properly and not fully switching on the MOSFETs, causing a voltage drop.

Our driver can supply 2.5A, so it would be suitable for your motor if it doesn’t draw more than 2.5A. It’s possible that at that particular height, the force the motor needs to overcome becomes greater than what the motor can provide, which is why the voltage drops.

It’s also possible your driver is faulty and therefore not working properly. It’s hard to say what the problem is without more testing.

You can try running the motor on the power supply to see if it will work at the height where it stalls with the driver.

Original message (Croatian)

Ako izgubite napon to bi značilo da motor povuče veliku struju ili driver ne radi dobro i ne otvori mosfete te zbog toga imate pad napona.

Naš driver može dati 2.5A tako da bi odgovarao za vaš motor ako isti ne vuče više od 2.5A. Može se dogoditi na toj određenoj visini sila koju motor mora svladati postane veća nego što motor može te zato padne napon.

Moguće je i da je Vaš driver neispravan te stoga ne radi dobro. Teško je ovako reći što je problem.

Možete probati na napajanju pokrenuti motor te vidjeti hoće raditi na toj visini gdje zapne s driverom.