New DC Motor Controller has built sensing to support software-based control loops - Also provides over-current, over-voltage and over-temperature protection.

“Brushed DC Motors are very simple to understand, but very difficult to control precisely. By applying a voltage, or pulsing a voltage rapidly, at the terminals of the motor, current flows through the motor, and it will begin rotating. Depending on the direction of the current, the motor will rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. The 1065 changes the effective voltage by changing the percentage of time the full supply voltage is applied to the motor. By switching the voltage very quickly (a technique called PWM), the controller is made smaller, more efficient, and cheaper. ” says Chester Fitchett, CEO of Phidgets.

“The 1065 also provides over-current, over-voltage, and over-temperature protection to insure that the board and motor is not damaged. ” added Bernard Rousseau, Director of Marketing.

Software Environment
“Unlike a lot of our competitor’s products that require their users to write some firmware code in order to use their sensor, we are completely “Plug and Play” says Bernard Rousseau, Director of Marketing. “With Phidgets, you plug it in and start using it and when it comes to programming, the user, not us, decides which operating system and which computer language he wants to use”, added Rousseau.
Users can pr
ogram Phidgets using a simple yet powerful and well documented Application Programming Interfade (API) that is supported under Windows (2000, XP, Vista), Windows CE, Mac OS X, and Linux. Users can write programs in Visual Basic, VB.NET, C#, C/C++, Flash/Flex, Java, Labview, Matlab, ActionScript 3.0, and Cocoa.

Phidgets also provides programming examples for all its products to help programmers write their own programs.