Centaur is a high power single DC motor driver and controller board powered by LPC1751 microcontroller. It has CPU of up to 100 MHz and 32KB of flash memory. LPC1751’s on-chip quadrature encoder input (QEI) makes it possible to track the position and direction of rotation of DC motor. Centaur is suitable for precision control robotics and automation application. It can be powered and programmed using USB. It also has JTAG interface for programming and debugging.

Centaur is capable of driving high power motors. Maximum motor supply voltage is 36V and can supply continuous current up to 40 A and peak current up to 100 A.

Features

• LPC1751 microcontroller with on-board crystal oscillator of 12 MHz
• On-board USB to serial converter
• On-chip QEI for control motor control application
• On-chip CAN controller with on-board CAN transceiver
• 20 pin header for external interface
• From 5.5V onwards the controller operates with reduced current capability (Gate drive)
• Auto shutdown for short circuit, over temperature, under voltage, bootstrap under voltage, gate drive under voltage
• Read out of faults by microcontroller
• Digital interfaces available are I2C, SPI, UART, CAN and UART
• 5-pin QEI interface including 5V supply
• Optional heat sink can be used on bottom side of the entire board
• Single flat metal strip can be used as heat sink (only terminals require clearance)
• All digital components are rendered to bottom right corner to minimize the EMI
• Single power supply for motor and microcontroller operation
• Automatic power selection for microcontroller from USB and battery
• The motors can be driven in synchronous, slow decay, fast decay and regenerative modes
• PWM switching frequency ranges from 0 Hz to 50 KHz
• Power and ground planes of switching circuit are isolated from rest of the circuit
• On-board 5V regulator for external peripherals