eli5 why motors need drivers and cannot be powered directly or with potentiometer
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Many motors do not need specialized drivers. It depends a ton on the motor’s design and how it’s being powered.
The most basic motor, the brushed DC motor, cheats and uses the commutator as a “driver”. You can hook this up to a potentiometer, but you will lose a decent fraction of your energy into the potentiometer this way. There are AC motors that work similarly.
However if you need more power or efficiency, or you need better control of the speed and torque of the motor, a driver becomes incredibly helpful. This opens up your motor options quite a bit, and as electronics get cheaper these better systems are becoming more and more popular.
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