The Grove – I2C Motor Driver V1.3 (latest version) can directly control Stepper Motor or DC Motor. Its heart is a dual channel H-bridge driver chip(L298N)that can handle current up to 2A per channel, controlled by an Atmel ATmega8L which handles the I2C communication with platforms such as Arduino. Both motors can be driven simultaneously while set to a different speed and direction. It can power two brushed DC motors or one 4-wire two-phase stepper motor. It requires a 6V to 15V power supply to power the motor and has an onboard 5V voltage regulator which can power the I2C bus and the Arduino(selectable by jumper). All driver lines are protected by diodes from back-EMF.
Specifications
Item | Min | Typical | Max | Unit |
---|---|---|---|---|
Working Voltage | 6 | – | 15 | VDC |
Max Output Current per channel | 0.5 | A | ||
Maximum Total current | 1.0 | A | ||
Input/output voltage on I2C bus | 5 | V | ||
Communication protocol | I2C | / |
[1] NOTE: Input voltage on screw terminals is regulated to 5v and connected to I2C +5v via a jumper (J4). Remove jumper if both external power via the screw terminals and power via the I2C header is used. Use jumper if 5v should be supplied to the I2C bus.
Pin definitions
Pad Type | Pin Status | Description |
---|---|---|
GND | Input | Ground port |
VS | Input | Motor Power supply(6-15V), also for 1117-5 regulator |
SDA | Input and Output | I2C Serial Data(+5V Logic) |
SCL | Input | I2C Serial Clock(+5V Logic) |
VCC | Output or NC(not connected) | When the jumper is on, VCC as a +5V output for external MCU(Xduinos);NC while jumper is off. |
M1+,M1-,M2+,M2- | Output | DC motor output relevent to VS |
Application Ideas
This motor driver can be used to drive any brushed electronic motor as long as it doesn’t consume more than 2A at 5v. Two motors can be driven simultaneously while set to a different speed and direction. The speed can be set fully proportional and is controlled by the ATmega8 on the board using PWM. It is set by I2C commands sent from e.g. an Arduino. It is perfect for applications like robots, homebuilt RC cars, case fans, high power LED illumination or any other project that involves proportional load control.
Cautions
- The board will be very hot if while operating over 1Amps. Do keep off your hands!
- Different Arduino IDE may have difference. I use arduino-0019 and it works fine, but when i use arduino – 0022, I need to add some delay() at the end of Wire.endTransmission().
Documents
Please visit our wiki page for more info about this product. It will be appreciated if you can help us improve the documents, add more demo code or tutorials