ActiveWire Motor Control Add-on board

Updated 20-Nov-02


Please refer to the pin diagram below.

P1 ActiveWire Motor Control board
pin# pin#
+5V 1 2 NC +V 1 2 +V
I/O8=M2Enable 3 4 I/O9=M2+ M0+ 3 4 M0-
I/O10=M2- 5 6 NC M1+ 5 6 M1-
GND 7 8 Read=M5Enable NC 7 8 NC
Write=M4Enable 9 10 I/O13==M3- M2+ 9 10 M2-
I/O0=M0Enable 11 12 +5V M3+ 11 12 M3-
I/O1=M0+ 13 14 I/O2=M0- NC 13 14 NC
I/O3=M1Enable 15 16 I/O4=M1+ M4+ 15 16 M4-
I/O5=M1- 17 18 GND M5+ 17 18 M5-
I/O6=M4+ 19 20 I/O7=M4- -V 19 20 -V
P2
pin#
+5v 1 2 NC
NC 3 4 NC
I/O11=M3Enable 5 6 I/O12=M3+
GND 7 8 I/O14=M5+
I/O15=M5- 9 10 NC
NC 11 12 +5v
NC 13 14 NC
NC 15 16 NC
NC 17 18 GND
NC 19 20 NC

Inputs are connected to the ActiveWire connector so that it can be easily plugged in to the ActiveWire USB board.

Outputs are high voltage high current bi-polar transistor drivers.  See chip specification.

Each driver pair forms a H-bridge to control any DC motor (forward and reverse).
Each pair has an enable input which enables/dis-ables the driver output. When the Enable input is low, the driver pair
are both high impedance. This effectively disconnects the DC motor from external power supply.
When M+ input is High, the driver transistor turns on then M+ output will be connected to +V supply with low resistance.
When M+ input is Low, the driver transistor turns off so M+ output will be connected to -V supply with low resistance.
The same applys to M- input.  See logic table below.

Input Output Motor state
Enable M+ M- M+ M-
0 X X Hi-Z Hi-Z Neutral
1 0 0 -V -V Break
1 1 0 +V -V Forward
1 0 1 -V +V Reverse
1 1 1 +V +V Break



Following example demonstrates controling 4 DC motors.
Please refer to the wiring diagram below.

ActiveWire Motor Control board Example

Please select Device# at first.
Device# is the number sequentially assigned to each board by Windows operating system.
If you have only 1 board plugged into your system, Device# is 0.
If you have 2 boards plugged into your system, the first board is 0, the another is 1.

Click in the box below, type in a number, then click Open.
Device#

Now you can click on either of following radio button, then motor of your choice will follow your command.

Motor #0
Motor #1
Motor #2
Motor #3

Neutral
Forward
Reverse
Break

See another example of Stepper Motor Control here.


Below is a debug message.
If it says ERROR, check your hardware/software.

debug message :



If you see ActiveWire bitmap below, ActiveX control is loaded successfully.

If you see broken picture above, either ;

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or above is required. Download the latest from Microsoft web site.

  2. Security setting of your Internet Explorer is preventing from loading ActiveX control. Choose View->Internet Option->Security, then set Local intra net zone security setting to Low.

  3. ActiveX control is not installed in your system properly. Download AwusbIO.OCX, and follow instruction.

  4. ActiveWire USB Windows Driver is not installed properly. Download RegClear.exe and try reinstall driver.