Driver for Latching Contactor
This is a mini circuit board with two mosfets, four resistors and wires that are to be soldered to the
10A Latching Contactor and the
Mini 4 DualPole Motor circuit board. This is a new option for that motor as the
latching contactor has been for several years now. Previously customers had to make this themselves. Customer still has to solder the wires and also provide the larger battery wires to and from the latching contactor.
The latching contactor only takes a very little amount of power for a split second when the batteries rotate every hour (when pins 4 and 5 are connected on the Arduino board). The magnets hold the contactor in position unlike regular relays that would draw continuous power to hold position. The latching contactor is limited to 10A continuous so that using this for the double and triple stack mini DualPole motors requires the user to keep those motors under 10A.
The center black wire connects to the negative 12V battery or battery terminal on the Arduino board which is the common ground. The two red wires on this driver board go to pins 3 and 6 on the Arduino board while the two other outer black wires go to terminals 2 and 4 on the latching contactor. The two positive terminals 1 and 3 on the latching contactor are joined together and go to the Arduino positive terminal after the protection diode (both the black and red power wires mentioned could be connected directly to the small battery powering the Arduino board.
