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 3 Model B+ and Model A+. The expansion board uses a pair of Toshiba TB9051FTG motor drivers, which operate from 4.5 to 28 V and can deliver a continuous 2.6 A per channel (up to 5 A per channel for a few seconds). Other features include a reverse battery protection circuit and logic gates that reduce the number of I/O pins required to control the driver ICs effectively. 

The board’s default configuration uses six GPIO pins to control the motor drivers, making use of the Raspberry Pi’s hardware PWM outputs, and it uses two additional pins to read status outputs from the drivers. However, the pin mappings can be customized if the defaults are not convenient, and other control inputs and outputs of the TB9051FTG ICs are accessible on the board for more advanced applications.

Free shipping on this item

Features

• Dual-channel H-bridge motor driver in the form factor of a Raspberry Pi expansion board
• Wide operating voltage range: 4.5 V to 28 V
• Output current: 2.6 A continuous (5 A peak) per motor
• Automatic current chopping feature helps prevent overheating by gracefully reducing power rather than abruptly shutting down
• PWM operation up to 20 kHz, which is ultrasonic and allows for quieter motor operation
• Motor indicator LEDs show what the outputs are doing even when no motor is connected
• Board can optionally power the Raspberry Pi base through added regulator like the D24V10F5 or D24V22F5 (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
• Remaining motor driver pins are exposed for advanced use
• Exposed solderable ground pads below the driver ICs on the bottom of the PCB
• Reverse-voltage protection on motor supply
• Robust drivers:
  • Transient operation (< 500 ms) up to 40 V
  • Under-voltage lockout and protection against over-current/short-circuit and over-temperature
  • Active-low error output indicates over-current, over-temperature, under-voltage, or VCC over-voltage condition
• Prototyping space for easier/cleaner construction of custom circuits

This version of the motor driver is fully assembled with a 2×20-pin 0.1″ female header (for connecting to the Raspberry Pi’s 40-pin GPIO header) and a six-pin strip of 5 mm terminal blocks(for motor and power connections) soldered in