Pololu A4983 without heatsink?

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone knows how to make a ramps with a Pololu A4983 without the heatsink. I am up to the stage where I would solder them on, but just realised they were ones without heatsinks, or voltage regulators for that matter.

any help would be appreciated

thanks!

Schulz

There are stick on heatsinks for this purpose. I don't remember if mine came with the Pololu's or with the controller board kit. Are you soldering pins on your Pololu carrier boards or are you soldering the carrier board into your board? Soldering pins on the Pololu and pin sockets on your board is the better option so that you can easily change or interchange them when diagnosing/fixing problems.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2011 07:15AM by brnrd.

If you keep the current to about 1A they run hot, but not too hot. With a small fan they run cold at the same current.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I've got female headers where the pololus are supposed to go, and then I'm planning to solder the pololus to extra pins, which will go into the headers. However when i solder them on, won't they fry, my soldering iron is hot hot hot!

Oh and with keeping it at 1 amp, is that possible with atx power supply?

thanks!
Schulz

Yes the current is set by a tiny potentiometer on the board. Increase it slowly until it gets just too hot to touch.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

There's no problem with soldering the male header pins to the Pololu. The trick is to plug the male headers into the female headers on the Arduino 2560 first, then put the Pololu on the pins and solder. This ensures that the pins are straight. If you haven't soldered before, I suggest that you get someone experienced to help you. If not, you should practice first on some spare boards. Perhaps a breadboard from Radioshack. If not, you might end up overheating the board or using too much solder.