Motor Driver works with PS, not battery

[ephemera]

Hi Guys, first post to the forum here.

I'm having a strange issue using an Intersil HIP4081A H bridge driver IC. I have it hooked up to an Arduino MCU for logic commands and 4 power MOSFETS used to a drive a DC 12V motor. Strange thing is, the circuit works as expected on an Agilent E3631A Power Supply, but not with any of multiple 12V lead Acid Batteries. It also doesn't work with Agilent E3632A. With the "bad" sources the IC just heats up and draws ~.5A. When it works it only draws about .017A which is lighting a "bridge ok" directional indicator LED (in parallel with motor). The same problem occurs whether or not I hook up a motor.

My thought here is that this has something to do with the internal resistance of my power supplies. But WHY would this cause the IC to malfunction? What can I do to prevent this seemingly latching condition inside the IC? Has anyone seen this before?

I've tried multiple decoupling caps at the battery terminals as well as close to the IC. I tried current limiting with the "bad" PS and it just causes the voltage to drop at the input.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[duke37]

Very strange, perhaps you could post a circuit diagram and specification of a good and bad supply.
Is it something simple like providing the wrong polarity?

 

[ephemera]

This is basically what I've got. Definitely not a polarity issue.

As far as good and bad supplies I've given the model numbers above and there is nothing out of the ordinary about them. Using the Agilent E3632A is equivalent to hooking up a 12V battery and the IC heats up, syncing 1/2 amp or so. Direction LED does not come on, motor is not driven. In fact all legs of the bridge are open and no voltage appears across the LEDs or motor. The MOSFETS do not dissipate any heat, only the IC.

 

[duke37]

I've never used such a chip but looked it up. The chip is very fast and will be sensitive to external spurious signals. Try some fat electrolytics across the power supply.

 

[ephemera]

That was my first thought...200uF across input leads and 100uf plus a few .22uf across input to IC to no avail! This is not a PCB with nice traces and im worried that the length of the wires could be causing excessive inductance and this could be the issue. Even still I'm confused why it works with one PS and not the other or batteries.