Robot MarketPlace - Sabertooth 2 x 5 RC Dual Motor Speed Controller

Sabertooth Dual Motor Speed Controllers - The Robot MarketPlace

Sabertooth 2X5 R/C is a dual motor driver specifically optimized for use in radio controlled vehicles. It is suitable for small robots, cars and boats, and especially well suited for the Antweight and Beetleweight classes of fighting robots.
Out of the box, it can supply two DC brushed motors with up to 5A each. Peak currents of 10A are achievable for a few seconds. Overcurrent and thermal protection means you'll never have to worry about killing the driver with accidental stalls or by hooking up too big a motor.

This model comes with an invert channel (activate a switch or channel from your radio to drive your robot upside-down) and options for exponential control, autocalibration and built-in mixing (the popular single-stick driving option) . The operating mode is set with the onboard DIP switches so there are no jumpers to lose.

Sabertooth is the first synchronous regenerative motor driver in its class. The regenerative topology means that your batteries get recharged whenever you command your robot to slow down or reverse. Sabertooth also allows you to make very fast stops and reverses - giving your vehicle a quick and nimble edge.

Sabertooth has a built in 5V BEC that can provide power to a microcontroller or R/C receiver. The lithium cutoff mode allows Sabertooth to operate safely with lithium ion and lithium polymer battery packs - the highest energy density batteries available.

Specifications

Voltage range	6.0 - 18.0V input
Current handling	5 amps continuous, 10A Peak per channel
Size	1.8" x 1.6" x 0.5"
Weight	0.6 oz (18g)
Synchronous regenerative drive	yes
Ultra-sonic switching frequency	yes
Thermal and overcurrent protection	yes
Lithium protection mode	yes

Here is a great DIP switch wizard that will help you configure your Sabertooth.

Click here to add your own review or comment for this product.

5/27/2013

DarkCorner

This is a very reliable controller for my uses.

4/22/2013

Chase

Great product

The Saber 2x5 is a great motor controller. Works perfect with 2 wheel drive bots. I use these on my antwieght bots they never fail me. The only problem ive came across is that if you throttle or turn to fast on the controller the saber will spazz out.

5/16/2012

Campana

An ecepcional choice

In my opinion this is one of the best speed controls to beetleweight and lightweight category. My team use it in our both beetleweight robots (Chakira and Frango) and we recommend for all robot market place comunity!

PUCPR Mobile Robotics Team.

8/9/2011

Platypus5

Good, but has its quirks

I use this in my beetleweight. It is a fairly good controller: pretty reliable, VERY easy to set up and use. However, there are some quirks that make me a little bit wary of it. First of all, the auto-calibrate sometimes resets if the robot receives a jolt, causing driving problems. Not sure if anyone else had to do this, but we had to turn the option off. In addition, that also led to the drive motors somehow not receiving full power. This can be remedied with a programmable transmitter, but it is irritating.

Hopefully my experience is an isolated one.

5/31/2011

Omega13

This works great, and is generally very durable. sometimes they give me problems for no apparent reason though, but once u get them working they never fail. i also reccomend the sabertooth 12 dual rc esc.

3/22/2011

MrPipikiller

Ideal ESC, for two engines.

Performs very well for me.
Ideal, 2x2 wd machines.
Easy operation, easy programming.

I recommend to everyone.

2/26/2011

momomo68

This did me no good! I had 4 motors to control with 2 of these ESCs, the would NOT work with one another, only one or the other would work. I had to buy 2 independent ESCs for the other two motors since I could only use one of these at a time.

Secondly, it says 10amp peak, but when my motor spun in reverse, sending a current spike to the ESC- it BLEW!

If using ONLY 1, it is probably a decent package, but it was horrible for my application.

2/24/2011

Blu

it works I have no other speed controller to compare it to.

2/1/2011

Michael

Great ESC

Great speed controller worked well with my two copal 60:1 antweight motors. very large speed controller, though.

10/6/2010

Bran (Bone Dead Robotics)

I don't recommend it for newcomers like me right now, but the DIP switches are excellent and it is small.

8/22/2010

royce

Nice mounting screws

kinda heavy compared to the scorpion hx

1/2/2010

Troy

Don't Buy This

Don't buy this speed controller. It is rather large and heavy compared to the Ant 100 or Scorpion. When I received it, the heatsink had come off, which wasn't a big deal, but after a couple times driving around, the led shown red. I didn't work from then on. I sent it to Dimension Engineering, who kindly sent back a brand new one. After a couple more times of running, the Sabertooth shown red as well. I have now switched to the discontinued Ant 100 and it works extremely well for my. BTW, I was running 4 Sanyo 50:1 gearmotors on a 7.2 volt battery. Not sure what was wrong.

I gave this 2 stars because the built in features are nice.

9/7/2009

trevor stacy

The mounting hardware is small compared to the size of the controller.
The voltage range is ok but I wish it was a 4 volt min instead of 6 volts.
The channel mixing is awsome.
The solderless terminals are great you can switch motors with no soldering iron.

Over all good but I don't have much experince with other esc's.

7/14/2009

Thomas Kenney(MH Robotics)

This ESC's mixing and other features make it somewhat preferable to single channel ESCs in that aspect.

When compared to the Scorpion HX, Barello Ant 100 and 150, and other discontinued antweight speed contollers, it stands out as bulky and heavy. I also doubt the five amp continous rating, as it was going into current limiting when I was driving around a bot in which the motors should only be pulling four amps at wheelspin.In addition, for some reason unknown to me it will not reach top speed when driving in reverse. I have looked all through the programing options and haven't found any way to remedy this.

Overall, this ESC is workable, but it'll be sitting in my box of spares until my supply of Scorpions, Barello boards, and Soz ESCs die out.

5/19/2009

Dan Toborowski

A terrific electronic speed controller for small combat robots. Dimension Engineering packed tons of features into this controller such as lithium protection, auto calibration, mixing, exponential, and more. All of these features are selected using on board DIP switches which I found to be much more reliable and easier to use than pesky pin jumpers.

The Sabertooth is quite large compared to other antweight electronic speed controllers making it difficult to cram inside. Also the included mounting hardware can be difficult install because the screws and nuts are so small.