This small shield is an easy, economical way to control two small brushed DC motors with an Arduino or Arduino-compatible board. Its integrated DRV8835 dual motor driver allows it to operate from 1.5 V to 11 V, making it a great control option for low-voltage motors. The shield can deliver a continuous 1.2 A (1.5 A peak) per motor, or a continuous 2.4 A (3 A peak) to a single motor when configured with both channels connected in parallel.
This motor driver shield and its corresponding Arduino library make it easy to control a pair of bidirectional, brushed DC motors with an Arduino or compatible board. The board features Texas Instruments’ DRV8835 dual H-bridge motor driver IC, which allows it to operate from 1.5 V to 11 V and makes it particularly well suited for driving small, low-voltage motors. The shield can deliver a continuous 1.2 A per channel and tolerate peak currents up to 1.5 A per channel for a few seconds, and the channels can be optionally configured to run in parallel to deliver twice the current to a single motor. The shield ships fully populated with its SMD components, including the DRV8835 driver and a FET for reverse battery protection; header pins for interfacing with an Arduino and terminal blocks for connecting motors and power are included but are not soldered in.
Features:
- Dual-H-bridge motor driver: can drive two DC motors or one bipolar stepper motor
- Motor supply voltage: 1.5 V to 11 V
- Logic supply voltage 2 V to 7 V
- Output current: 1.2 A continuous (1.5 A peak) per motor
- Motor outputs can be paralleled to deliver 2.4 A continuous (3 A peak) to a single motor
- PWM operation up to 250 kHz (ultrasonic frequencies allow for quieter motor operation)
- Two possible interface modes: PHASE/ENABLE (default – one pin for direction, another for speed) or IN/IN (outputs mostly mirror inputs)
- Shield can optionally power the Arduino base directly when motor supply voltage is suitable
- Arduino library makes it easy to get started using this board as a motor driver shield
- Arduino pin mappings can be customized if the default mappings are not convenient
- Reverse-voltage protection on motor power supply
- Under-voltage lockout and protection against over-current and over-temperature
