Hi Guys,
I hope I am at the right spot to ask for help.
I have an Openbuilds ACRO System controlled by a Smoothieboard. I now need to control a linear actuator like this one but with 24V: LA-T8 linear actuator.
After reading the Smoothieware Docs about how to use the MOSFETs, I still struggle on how to connect the linear actuator.
The linear actuator pulls up when connecting + with + and - with -, and will retract when changing the polarity. I don’t think that it is possible to control this with one MOSFET, since there is no configiration option to change the polarity. However, with two MOSFETs it should be possible but I am unsure about the wiring.
Do you have any suggestions on how to solve this issue?
you probably want an H-bridge which has the high power FETs for such tasks as reversing voltages to motors. They generally take a few inputs which are 5V(or 3.3v) level signals with 1 or 2 bits for direction and 1 bit for enable/disable.
I would not be surprised if Smoothie has support for Servo actuation( PWM output ) already and there are linear actuators which take RC Servo type of PWM for control. But I would first google for ‘smoothie h-bridge’ and see if it’s not already been done and documented.
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