Details
This discrete MOSFET H-bridge motor driver enables bidirectional control of one high-power DC brushed motor. The small 1.3″ × 0.8″ board supports a wide 6.5 V to 40 V voltage range and is efficient enough to deliver a continuous 21 A without a heat sink. Additional features of this second-generation (G2) driver include reverse-voltage protection along with basic current sensing and current limiting functionality.
The Pololu G2 high-power motor driver is a discrete MOSFET H-bridge designed to drive large brushed DC motors. The H-bridge is made up of one N-channel MOSFET per leg; the rest of the board contains the circuitry to take user inputs and control the MOSFETs. The absolute maximum voltage for this motor driver is 40 V, and higher voltages can permanently destroy the motor driver. Under normal operating conditions, ripple voltage on the supply line can raise the maximum voltage to more than the average or intended voltage, so a safe maximum voltage is approximately 34 V.
Note: Battery voltages can be much higher than nominal voltages when they are charged, so the maximum nominal battery voltage we recommend is 28 V unless appropriate measures are taken to limit the peak voltage.
Connections
The motor and motor power connections are on one side of the board, and the control connections (1.8 V to 5 V logic) are on the other side. The motor supply should be capable of supplying high current. There are two options for making the high-power connections (VIN, OUTA, OUTB, GND): large holes spaced 5 mm apart, which are compatible with the included terminal blocks, and pairs of 0.1″-spaced holes that can be used with perfboards, breadboards, and 0.1″ connectors.
For good performance, it is very important to install a large capacitor across the motor supply and ground close to the motor driver. We generally recommend using a capacitor of at least a few hundred μF and rated well above the maximum supply voltage; the required capacitance will be greater if the power supply is poor or far (more than about a foot) from the driver, and it will also depend on other factors like motor characteristics and applied PWM frequency. A through-hole capacitor can be installed directly on the board in the holes labeled '+' and '−' (connected to VM and GND, respectively). The driver includes three on-board 100 µF capacitors, which might be sufficient for brief tests and limited low-power operation, but adding a bigger capacitor is strongly recommended for most applications.
PWM frequency
The motor driver supports PWM frequencies as high as 100 kHz, but note that switching losses in the driver will be proportional to the PWM frequency. Typically, around 20 kHz is a good choice for sign-magnitude operation since it is high enough to be ultrasonic, which results in quieter operation.
A pulse on the PWM pin must be high for a minimum duration of approximately 0.5 µs before the outputs turn on for the corresponding duration (any shorter input pulse does not produce a change on the outputs), so low duty cycles become unavailable at high frequencies. For example, at 100 kHz, the pulse period is 10 µs, and the minimum non-zero duty cycle achievable is 0.5/10, or 5%.
Current sensing and limiting
The driver’s current sense pin, CS, outputs a voltage proportional to the motor current while the H-bridge is driving. The output voltage is about 20 mV/A plus a small offset, which is typically about 50 mV.
The CS output is only active while the H-bridge is in drive mode; it is inactive (low) when the driver is in brake mode (slow decay), which happens when the PWM input is low or when current limiting is active. Current will continue to circulate through the motor when the driver begins braking, but the voltage on the CS pin will not accurately reflect the motor current in brake mode. The CS voltage is used internally by the motor driver, so to avoid interfering with the driver’s operation, you should not add a capacitor to this pin or connect a load that draws more than a few mA from it.
The G2 driver has the ability to limit the motor current through current chopping: once the motor drive current reaches a set threshold, the driver goes into brake mode (slow decay) for about 25 µs before applying power to drive the motor again. This makes it more practical to use the driver with a motor that might only draw a few amps while running but can draw many times that amount (tens of amps) when starting.
The current limiting threshold is nominally set to about 50 A by default. You can lower the limit by connecting an additional resistor between the VREF pin and the adjacent GND pin; the graph below shows how the current limit relates to the VREF resistor value. For example, adding a 100 kΩ resistor between VREF and GND lowers the current limit to approximately 29 A. Note that the current limiting threshold is not highly precise (we have seen some units limit the current as low as about 40 A when the threshold is set to the board’s default of 50 A), and it is less accurate at especially low settings (indicated by the dashed portion of the curve).
Dimensions
Size: | 1.3″ × 0.8″ |
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Weight: | 5.0 g1 |
General specifications
Motor channels: | 1 |
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Minimum operating voltage: | 6.5 V |
Maximum operating voltage: | 40 V2 |
Continuous output current per channel: | 21 A3 |
Current sense: | 0.02 V/A |
Maximum PWM frequency: | 100 kHz |
Minimum logic voltage: | 1.8 V |
Maximum logic voltage: | 5.5 V |
Reverse voltage protection?: | Y |
Identifying markings
PCB dev codes: | md31b |
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Other PCB markings: | 0J9488 |
Notes:
Specifications
Part. No. : | 2995 |
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