27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and

answer site for electronics and electrical engineering
professionals, students, and enthusiasts. Join them; it only
takes a minute:

Sign up

Here's how it works:

Anybody can ask a question
Anybody can answer
The best answers are voted up and rise to the top

Control of a coreless DC motor using a Ask Question

PWM and a mosfet

I'm using 4 Si2302 logic

level mosfets to drive 4
coreless dc motors. The
speed of the motors is
control led by the PWM
signal from an Arduino
Pro Mini. The power
supply for the boards is
a 3.7V (4.2V when fully-
charged) 500mAh 50C
Lipo.

The circuit is setup in

the following way:

Source to ground
Gate to PWM pin
with a 10KΩ
resistor to ground.
Drain to motor
terminal 1
Motor terminal 2 to
Vcc
Diode placed
By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, and
our Terms of Service. across the motor
terminals
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 1/6
27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

simulate this circuit –

Schematic created using
CircuitLab

The motor gets its RPM

value via a joystick
which is connected to
an Analog Input on the
Arduiuno. This is then
converted to a 0-255
value and outputted at
the PWM output.

I'm facing the following

problems with the
circuit:

1. As soon as I supply
power to the circuit
the Motors run at
full RPM till the
Arduino starts
taking data from the
joystick. It then
settles down to the
RPM corresponding
to the joystick
position. Is there
any way to counter
this so that the
motors remain
switched off until
the Arduino starts
receiving values
from the joystick ?
(My understanding
was that the 10KΩ
Rgs resistor would
take care of this.)
2. The second
problem is that the
mosfet never fully
switches off. This
By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our , , and
happens even
our .
when the joystick is
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 2/6
27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

at the 0 position. I
have also tried
switching the pins
HIGH and LOW,
however there is
still movement in
the motor. Is there
any remedy to this
problem?
3. When I measure
the resistance
between Gate and
Source, the mosfet
shows around 6K
ohms. Shouldn't
this be around
10KΩ since the Rgs
resistor is 10KΩ ?
Is this a sign that
the mosfet is
damaged ?

arduino mosfet motor

edited Jun 21 '15 at 17:02

asked Jun 21 '15 at 15:56

SidharthM
10 1 6

3 Answers

Reduce the 10K resistor

to 3.3K or even 1K.

The Si2302 device that

you are using has
threshold voltage
around 0.65V, this is
much lower than many
MOSFETS which more
typically have a a
threshold of 2v - 4.5V.

All effects you are

seeing are probably
because of the pullup
By using our site, you acknowledge
resistor that you have read and understand our
in the Arduino , , and
our (assuming
. it uses an

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 3/6
27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

AVR processor). This

can be anywhere
between 20K and 100K
and will be putting
enough current out of
the processor to create
a bias voltage that turns
on the MOSFET slightly.

When you measured the

gate resistance, was it
still connected to the
Arduino?

The pull-up can be

disabled
programmatically, but of
course not until the
software is running.

kevin

ited Oct 17 at 14:27

swered Jun 21 '15 at 17:17

Kevin White
12.6k 1 14 21

1I removed the 10K

resistor and soldered a
3.3K resistor but the
motor is still on even
when the PWM is 0. I
even connected the
gate directly to ground
(to simulate the
Arduino pin going
LOW) and there is still
a 0.5V voltage drop
across the motor
terminals. I tried this
with one of the
functioning Fets and
successfully switched
the motor off. Only 1
out of the 4 mosfets is
showing this odd
behaviour. I'm pretty
convinced now that
this mosfet is faulty
and will swap it out
and test the circuit
again. Thanks for your
reply. – SidharthM
By using our site, you Jun 22 '15 at 5:30
acknowledge that you have read and understand our , , and
our . Pullups are not active

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 4/6
27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

at boot; only once

enabled by software. –
Chris Stratton Sep 1
at 16:32

On the Arduino Pro Mini

all digital pins (except
pin 13, indicator LED)
are floating until
programmed otherwise,
so unless you are
deliberately activating
the internal pull-up your
pull-down resistor
should prevent the FET
from being turned on at
start up.

When I measure the

resistance between
Gate and Source,
the mosfet shows
around 6K ohms.

A reading of only 6k is
suspicious. However to
eliminate the effect of
other components you
should take the FET out
of the circuit, then
measure the Gate-Drain
and Gate-Source
resistances with a digital
multimeter. Finally, short
the Gate to the Source
and measure from Drain
(+ve meter lead) to
Source (-ve meter lead).
All readings should be
well over a Megohm. If
the Gate-Drain or
Source-Drain junction is
broken down the FET
may stay partially on
even with 0 PWM.

swered Jun 21 '15 at 20:50

Bruce Abbott
25.1k 1 19 33

By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our , , and
That 6K reading felt
our . weird to me too. My

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 5/6
27/11/2018 arduino - Control of a coreless DC motor using a PWM and a mosfet - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

first guess was the

mosfet was faulty but
the other 3 mosfets
functioned properly. I'm
going to swap this
mosfet with a new one
now. Is there any
solution for keeping
the motors off at
startup ? Shouldn't the
10K pull down resistor
keep them OFF until
the Arduino starts
giving PWM values ?
Thanks for your reply.
– SidharthM Jun 22
'15 at 5:35

10k should be enough.

Monitor the pins on
start-up to make sure
that they are not being
driven high (if they are
then there may a
problem in your setup
code). – Bruce Abbott
Jun 22 '15 at 8:55

Your first problem

occurs after you power
your system, without
any move of joystick,
right? Maybe silly, but
have you tried to do
following :) :

int motorSpeed1 = 0;
int motorSpeed2 = 0;
int motorSpeed3 = 0;
int motorSpeed4 = 0;

Good luck, Regards,

ited Sep 1 at 16:07

Dave Tweed ♦
116k 9 143 254

swered Sep 1 at 12:09

Yenice Coding
1

By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our , , and
our .

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/176601/control-of-a-coreless-dc-motor-using-a-pwm-and-a-mosfet 6/6