Knowledge Base

SPice10213: Power supply requirements

The SPice10213 board is powered off the same power supply that provides power to the motor(s). This may or may not be the power supply that powers the SPLat controller. If you use a separate power supply it is advisable to connect the power supply common (0V) terminals together.

The power supply voltage can be 12VDC to 24VDC.

The power supply current rating needs to be enough to supply the largest amount of current the motors are likely to draw. This may require some practical tests, especially if you are using a regulated (switchmode or linear) supply. The motors will normally draw much more current at startup than running, and the response of the power supply to the high startup currents will affect system performance. For example, a power supply with foldback current limiting could fail to ever get the motor started, even if at face value it is amply rated for the running current. This situation can be alleviated by ramping up the motor PWM, but we cannot give you any hard and fast answers to cover every situation.

Bare in mind that if the power supply does go into current limit its voltage will drop. If the same power supply is also powering the controller and the voltage drops below about 8V the controller could reset and re-start the program. This could produce hazards.