So I'm looking to control motors via PWM with my arduino. Right now I'm using one of these and it works perfect, but I need to run up to four motors, not all at the same time but individually. So what I'm looking to build is a mosfet controller that can individually control up to four motors, is that possible? Hard?

The motors are 12v / ea.

 

Can't you just use four of those?

What kind of motors are they?

 

I could but I was looking for something a bit more compact. The motors are standard 12v motors, they run peristaltic dosing pumps.

 

If you are thinking of only using one Mosfet driver for all four, then you would need a way a switching the power side of the circuit.
An alternative is if only one output on the Arduino then you could use a 1-4 line decoder and four logic gate mosfets?
Max.

 

I was actually thinking it would be easier to use four mosfet drivers and four PWM channels on the arduino.

 

I thought you nixed that in post #3?
Max.

 

I'm sorry for the confusion, I don't want to purchase four of those tinkerkit boards that I had mentioned in my original post. I'm looking to have one board with four drivers that can control four motors. I don't need to control the direction or stepper motors, I only need to be able to control the speed via PWM.

Does that make sense?

 

Then you just need 4 FETs and 4 flywheel diodes (a diode across each motor).

Or a ULN2003 chip to drive up to 7 motors (good for motors < 500mA).

 

Alright...I'm scrapping this idea. Part of my project is a DIY option for others to build and it needs to be easy and economical. So I'm scrapping this part of it and moving to a simple, manual PWM controller.

Thanks for your input.

 

Then you just need 4 FETs and 4 flywheel diodes (a diode across each motor).

Or a ULN2003 chip to drive up to 7 motors (good for motors < 500mA).

What part of this is difficult/complicated?

 

@bance, I'm open for trying this out, I just need a bit more info. I'm a visual person and I don't have a ton of knowledge in the EE area.

The biggest issue with this is that I need for people to be able to build this themselves. My project is DIY project and I want for it to be simple for people. Does that make sense?

Right now I'm leaning towards using manual PWM controllers instead as it seems like it will be a bit easier.

 

Like 4 555 timers, and 4 power FETs and 4 flywheel diodes?