Motor Driver for Raspberry Pi - Dual MAX14870

Motor Driver for Raspberry Pi - Dual MAX14870 - Pololu 3758

This motor driver expansion board and its corresponding Python library make it easy to control a pair of bidirectional, brushed DC motors with a compatible Raspberry Pi (Model B+ or newer), including the Pi 4. The expansion board features two MAX14870 H-bridge motor driver ICs from Maxim, which allow it to operate from 4.5 V to 36 V and make it well suited for driving small motors across a wide range of voltages. The board can deliver a continuous 1.7 A per channel and tolerate peak currents up to 2.5 A per channel for a few seconds.

The board’s default configuration uses five GPIO pins to control the motor drivers, making use of the Raspberry Pi’s hardware PWM outputs, and it uses one additional pin to read a fault output from the drivers. However, the pin mappings can be customized if the defaults are not convenient.

The 2×17-pin 0.1″ female header should be mounted to the bottom of the board (the side with surface-mount components). Once soldered, this header is used to connect the board to the Raspberry Pi’s 40-pin GPIO header. Alternatively, if you want to continue to have access to the Raspberry Pi’s 40 GPIO pins while the motor driver board is plugged in, you can install a stackable 2×20-pin female header (not included) instead.

Three 2-pin, 5 mm terminal blocks are included for making easy motor and power connections to the board once they have been slid together and soldered to the six large through-holes. Alternatively, you can solder 0.1″ male header pins to the smaller through-holes below the terminal block holes, or you can just solder wires directly to the board.

Features:

• Two single-channel H-bridge motor drivers with shoot-through protection and internal free-wheeling diodes (can each drive one DC motor)
• Motor supply voltage: 4.5 V to 36 V
• Output current: 1.7 A continuous (2.5 A peak) per motor
• Board can optionally power the Raspberry Pi base directly through an add-on regulator (not included)
• Python Library makes it easy to get started using this board as a motor driver expansion board
• GPIO pin mappings can be customized if the default mappings are not convenient
• Reverse-voltage protection on the motor power supply
• Under-voltage lockout and protection against over-current and over-temperature
• The surface-mount resistor can optionally be added to enable automatic current limiting

Specifications:

• Motor driver: MAX14870 (x2)
• Motor channels: 2
• Minimum operating voltage: 4.5 V
• Maximum operating voltage: 36 V
• Continuous output current per channel: 1.7 A (Typical results with VIN=18 V and 90% duty cycle at room temperature)
• Peak output current per channel: 2.5 A
• Maximum PWM frequency: 50 kHz
• Reverse voltage protection?: Yes

Dimensions:

• Length: 43.2mm
• Width: 16.5mm
• Weight: 3.2 grams(Without included hardware)