Use PWM to control your Jebao DCT pump using brushless motor controller from ebay

d0ughb0y

d0ughb0y

Active member
I got this brushless motor controller from ebay for under $10.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-24V-DC-b...891641?hash=item2a4b0edcb9:g:tKAAAOSwYGFUwl4I

It can control a 24v brushless DC motor under 3 amps.
I tested this on my DCT 4000 pump and it works fine.
It takes in a 0-5v dc voltage (5v PWM works as well).
If you want to connect this to an Apex and outputs 0-10v, all you need to do is connect a 10k resistor in series, as the board has a 10k pull down resistor for this pin.

There is this version that works with higher power pump motor, up to 6 amps
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-24V-36V...411977?hash=item4b01109849:g:S5gAAOSwuhhXVp1h

They both should work the same (both use the same motor controller chip), but I think for $2 difference, get the one that can handle higher amsp.

The connections are self explanatory.
The A B C motor connections go to corresponding W V U pins.
If you are looking into the 3 pin connector coming from pump with the notch at the bottom, W is left, V is upper/middle, U is right.

The module even has a direction control pin. So this will work in controlling a CP-40 or Gyre. I don't have either one of this so I don't have any further info.

The controller does not have built in soft start, so you will have to ramp up the pwm from your controller. The advantage using this is you can dial down your pump down to about 30%. The stock DCT controller minimum is 70% (one led does not mean 10%, it starts at 70% to 100% in 3% increment).

It has built in over current protection, which is equivalent to preventing the pump from running dry.

Since this is brushless motor with no hall sensors, the "stall" protection is built in. Meaning, the pump will stop sending out voltage if it is physically stopped from spinning.

youtube video

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MEeC7Jjb1ww?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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Wow. Can you post the image with the connections?

s-l1600.jpg


I'm asking because the powerheads and the old DC pumps were just 24V/CONTROL/GND

DSC_0017_6.JPG


but the same connector on the DCT and CP is actually W U V?

What are Z/F and VR?
 
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For the input side, all that is needed is a 0-5v variable voltage or 5v pwm and Gnd to control speed.

The motor connections that worked for me is WVU corresponding to ABC. Not sure if the green board label will work. It says CBA to WVU.

The z/f is for direction. If you leave it unconnected, it defaults to clockwise.
 
ok. got the higher current controller to drive my DCT15000

I'll use my Apex with a divider to get 0-5VDC.

So from the control board:

VCC goes to 24VDC power supply input positive
GND goes to 24VDC power supply ground negative

and looking at the connector image I posted above:

the pin labeled 24V connects to MA/U
the pin labeled CNTL connects to MB/V
the pin labeled GND connects to MC/W

The output 5V and GND go to a 5VDC supply?
The signal and GND goes to the APEX resistor divider midpoint and ground.

Z/F unconnected

and VR?
 
As I described in my 2 previous post,

MA - W
MB - V
MC - U
GND - power supply GND
VCC - power supply 24V

connector from pump -
If you are looking into the 3 pin connector coming from pump with the notch at the bottom, W is left, V is upper/middle, U is right.

I tried switching the W and U and the pump did not spin. I don't think it will do any harm switching connections. If you ever used brushless motors on drone, which runs at much higher amps, they tell you to switch the wires around unti the propeller spins clockwise.

VR - 0-5V analog or 5vPWM. Connect 10k in series for 0-10v signal from apex. The value of 10k is based on the board I tested on. I think for the Green board, it may be 100k. You can measure the resistance from VR pin to Gnd, then just put a resistor of the same value in series.

Gnd - Gnd from controller

No connection for all other pins.The other pins are as described in ebay listing. Do not connect anything else. 5v is an output.
Z/F is to reverse direction. Connecting to 5v will make motor spin backwards. I did not try this on the DCT pump. I think it can be used on CP-40 or gyre. But probably not really needed as reverse flow on these pumps don't really do anything. If someone wants to test it on their pump, they can post their results in this thread.

Connect it as described. If you already have an apex interface that has a voltage divider and you connect it to VR, your lower resistance will become the combined parallel resistance of your lower resistor and the input resistor and you may not get the 10v to divide in half.
 
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d0ughb0y said:
As I described in my 2 previous post,

MA - W
MB - V
MC - U
GND - power supply GND
VCC - power supply 24V

connector from pump -
If you are looking into the 3 pin connector coming from pump with the notch at the bottom, W is left, V is upper/middle, U is right.

I tried switching the W and U and the pump did not spin. I don't think it will do any harm switching connections. If you ever used brushless motors on drone, which runs at much higher amps, they tell you to switch the wires around unti the propeller spins clockwise.

VR - 0-5V analog or 5vPWM. Connect 10k in series for 0-10v signal from apex. The value of 10k is based on the board I tested on. I think for the Green board, it may be 100k. You can measure the resistance from VR pin to Gnd, then just put a resistor of the same value in series.

Gnd - Gnd from controller

No connection for all other pins.The other pins are as described in ebay listing. Do not connect anything else. 5v is an output.
Z/F is to reverse direction. Connecting to 5v will make motor spin backwards. I did not try this on the DCT pump. I think it can be used on CP-40 or gyre. But probably not really needed as reverse flow on these pumps don't really do anything. If someone wants to test it on their pump, they can post their results in this thread.

Connect it as described. If you already have an apex interface that has a voltage divider and you connect it to VR, your lower resistance will become the combined parallel resistance of your lower resistor and the input resistor and you may not get the 10v to divide in half.
Click to expand...

Great info here. Any reason I cant use a pot to drop 10V down to 5v?
 
If you use a potentiometer, you would not know where to stop turning. Turning all the way will feed 10v to the 5v input.

If you are referring to using a potentiometer to get 5v out of the 10v signal, then, as I already mentioned, when you connect to VR pin, your lower resistor value would change. This is just basic parallel resistance calculations. If you use a 100k potentiometer and turn it halfway to 50k + 50k to get 5v, when you connect to VR pin, the lower resistance of 50k would be in pareller to 100k (or whatever the pull down resistor value). Lets say it is 100k, then your effective combined lower resistance becomes 33k. So your output now varies between 0-4V instead of 0-5v, so you will run the pump at 20% below capacity.

The proper way is to simply measure the resistance from VR pin to ground. If it is 100k, then you can put a 100k in series from 0-10v signal to VR pin.

Or just get a controller or controller interface that outputs 5v PWM.

FWIW, I think 0-10v is old technology. Anything recent (within last 3 years) really should be 5v pwm capable. Like Archon controller. I think when looking for a new controller, that should be one of the main feature to look for.
 
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d0ughb0y said:
If you use a potentiometer, you would not know where to stop turning. Turning all the way will feed 10v to the 5v input.

If you are referring to using a potentiometer to get 5v out of the 10v signal, then, as I already mentioned, when you connect to VR pin, your lower resistor value would change. This is just basic parallel resistance calculations. If you use a 100k potentiometer and turn it halfway to 50k + 50k to get 5v, when you connect to VR pin, the lower resistance of 50k would be in pareller to 100k (or whatever the pull down resistor value). Lets say it is 100k, then your effective combined lower resistance becomes 33k. So your output now varies between 0-4V instead of 0-5v, so you will run the pump at 20% below capacity.

The proper way is to simply measure the resistance from VR pin to ground. If it is 100k, then you can put a 100k in series from 0-10v signal to VR pin.

Or just get a controller or controller interface that outputs 5v PWM.

FWIW, I think 0-10v is old technology. Anything recent (within last 3 years) really should be 5v pwm capable. Like Archon controller. I think when looking for a new controller, that should be one of the main feature to look for.
Click to expand...

I have a bunch of 10k pots and 100k pots laying around. I was just asking if I could use one instead of a resistor and wire it in series( turned up all the way to 10k or 100k). Probably easier to just use a resister I guess. I prefer 0-10v or 0-5v analog outputs because its usually easier for me to program. My Analog output module can do both 0-10v or 0-5v but not at the same time. My lights require 0-10v dimming so any 0-5v i need I just add pots to get it down to 5V.
 
You can use a pot and run 10V from the Apex and adjust the pot until the voltage to ground is 5V.

Then you can measure the pot resistance and replace it with a hard resistor.
 
stage3-s4 said:
I have a bunch of 10k pots and 100k pots laying around. I was just asking if I could use one instead of a resistor and wire it in series( turned up all the way to 10k or 100k). Probably easier to just use a resister I guess. I prefer 0-10v or 0-5v analog outputs because its usually easier for me to program. My Analog output module can do both 0-10v or 0-5v but not at the same time. My lights require 0-10v dimming so any 0-5v i need I just add pots to get it down to 5V.
Click to expand...

ok, in that case you can. I misunderstood your question. You still need to measure the resistance of the VR input to gnd, then set your pot to the same value. Then test by starting with 0v analog output, slowly going to 10v to make sure you end up at around 5v at max 10v analog out.
 
d0ughb0y said:
ok, in that case you can. I misunderstood your question. You still need to measure the resistance of the VR input to gnd, then set your pot to the same value. Then test by starting with 0v analog output, slowly going to 10v to make sure you end up at around 5v at max 10v analog out.
Click to expand...

Yea I will certainly measure the resistance between the VR and GND when I get one. I would want to make sure its 5V max between VR and GND with the pot connected right?

How long did it take for it to arrive BTW? Sometimes Stuff I order from China takes like 4 weeks to get here.
 
I did get those cables but I'm a little concerned that the jebao has a v-notch and this has a rectangular one.

We'll see...
 
I also just ordered the higher current green motor control board. I think there are now 3 of us that bought from the seller I linked in post #1. I hope to get the board next week so will test it by next weekend.

If I can confirm the green board works well, I'll scrap the idea of building my own board. I probably could use the time better finishing up my v2 of diy controller.

The white board module is really bare bones component. It does not even filter the back-emf signal and is fed directly to LM339, and I am amazed how the LM339 comparator is still able to output proper digital signal used for motor commutation timing.

The stock DCT/DCS controller also uses the LM339 comparator, but they add capacitors to filter out the input signal noise.

Just by looking at the picture of the green board, I can tell it is much better than the white board. You can see all the resistors and capacitors around the LM339, so it looks like it filters the input. Also this board uses the IR2101, so that means it uses all N-channel MOSFETs, which makes the upper and lower circuit essentially identical, and N-channel MOSFETs have lower Rds, so can run more current through without generating too much heat. I think the listing says can run up to 6amps without a heat sink, That is a lot of current. I think even the largest DCT pump only use 4 amps.
 
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stage3-s4 said:
I just order my board this week. I have to order a pump now.
Click to expand...

when I ordered my pump, I mistakenly thought the DCT was newer than DCS, but DCS is actually the newer one. It's pretty much identical except for the impeller. The DCT impeller looks the same as the old DCS impeller (green color).
 
d0ughb0y said:
when I ordered my pump, I mistakenly thought the DCT was newer than DCS, but DCS is actually the newer one. It's pretty much identical except for the impeller. The DCT impeller looks the same as the old DCS impeller (green color).
Click to expand...

Should I order it directly from fish street or on ebay?
 
shop around.
I've never bought anything from fish-street, or any ebay US sellers based in California, because sales tax is added.
 
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