DPDT toggle switch as alternative to H bridge

[hca]

Greetings,
I need to power a 12 V DC motor which can run up to 10 A. Will the use of a dpdt toggle switch (rated at 10 A) be safe to use to control the direction of the motor? My alternative idea is to use a PIC microcontroller to control a dpdt relay h-bridge. What are your thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Harald Kapp]

If the switch is rated for the current and voltage: yes.
But you will need
- either a switch with a center-off position
- or an additional switch to turn power of.

Otherwise you can change the direction of rotation, but you can't stop the motor.

How fast do you have to switch?

 

[hca]

Thanks Harald.
I was thinking of going with an on-off-on switch. Switching speeds are pretty slow, only occasionally using to switch motor direction. But I might need to have PWM, so I can start the motor slowly to avoid a high start up current spike.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Where's the PWM coming from?

 

[hca]

Correct me if I am wrong,
I was thinking of having a PIC uC generating the PWM signal. This signal would be going into an opto-isolator and this would control the motor speed.

 

[Harald Kapp]

In that case I suggest you use an H-bridge (see Wikipedia under projects). You can then combine speed control and direction control in one element by selecting which leg of the H-bridge the controller activates with the PWM signal. For stopping the motor you just turn of the PWM.

 

[hca]

Many thanks