Building a BLDC Motor Controller with an Arduino Pro Mini
YouTuber Zep Labs made a custom two-speed controller to drive his sea scooter's brushless motor.
Sea scooters are a great way to explore the waters and get a glimpse of marine life. There are various options available to buy on the market, or you can make your own with the right tools and knowledge like YouTuber Zep Labs did.
To propel through the water, he built a sea scooter with a brushless DC motor (BLDC), which are synchronous motors powered by DC electricity via an inverter. This helps create electricity in the form of AC to drive each phase of the motor using a closed-loop controller. It’s ideal for the sea scooter because BLDCs need very little maintenance. In order to drive the motor, a sensorless controller is required. These are typically one push-button controllers, but they’re not entirely waterproof. Rather than put the electronics inside at risk, Zep Labs assemble his own.
The controller is relativity simple made up of an Arduino Pro Mini (5V) and an FTDI Adapter to program it. He then wrote a script to power the voltage from 0V to 5V to run on the controller giving it the low and high speeds he required. For testing, the BLDC motor is connected to the controller, which is powered by a custom-made battery. With a flick of a switch, he’s able to adjust the motor’s speed between low and high. Though there’s still more work to do on the sea scooter, the motor and controller ensures he can traverse the waters with ease.
Check out Zep Labs' entire process below!
