Make your robotic dreams come true with the new Adafruit stepper motor and DC motor drive cap. This Raspberry Pi add-on module is perfect for any motion project as it can drive up to 4 DC motors or 2 stepper motors with a complete PWM speed control ready for use, ready for use, seamless!

Raspberry Pi and motors are not included. Works with all Raspberry Pi computers with GPIO 2x20 connection port.

As the Raspberry Pi does not have many PWM spindles, we use a fully dedicated and integrated PWM driver to control the direction and speed of the motor. This chip manages all motor and speed controls on I2C. Only two pins (SDA and SCL) are required to drive the multiple motors, and since it is I2C, you can also connect any other I2C device or HATs to the same pins.

In fact, you can even stack several motor caps, up to 32 of them, to control up to 64 stepper motors or 128 DC motors (or a combination of the two) - don't forget to buy 2x20 stackable manifolds.

The motors are controlled by TB6612 MOSFET drivers with a capacity of 1.2A per current channel (you can pull up to 3A peak for about 20ms at a time), a great improvement over the L293D drivers and there are also integrated flyback diodes. A large polarity protection FET will protect your precious Pi and Bonnet from accidental battery and power port wiring errors. The Cap is fully assembled and tested at Adafruit, so all you have to do is plug it directly into your Raspberry Pi.

Let's check these specifications again:

    4 H-bridges: The TB6612 chipset provides 1.2A per bridge with thermal protection and internal return protection diodes. Can operate motors from 4.5VDC to 13.5VDC.
    Up to 4 bidirectional DC motors with individual speed selection on 8 bits (resolution approx. 0.5%)
    Up to 2 stepper motors (unipolar or bipolar) with single, double, interlaced or microcoil coils.
    Large terminal block connectors for easy connection of wires (18-26AWG) and power supply
    Reverse polarity protected 2-pin terminal block and jumper for connecting the external 5-12VDC power supply
    Works best with Raspberry Pi model Zero, A+, B+, or Pi 2, Pi 3, Pi 3, Pi 3, etc. but can be used with a model A or B if you buy a 2x13 stackable head
    Install the easy-to-use Python library, check the examples and you're ready to go!

Delivered with a cap assembled and tested, the terminals and the 2x20 connector are already mounted and ready for use. Raspberry Pi, motors and battery are not included. Consult our detailed tutorial for tons of information including schematics, wiring diagrams, python libraries and usage examples.

Note: The terminals provided with your product can be blue or black.

Technical details

Product dimensions: 65.2 mm x 30.6 mm x 30.6 mm x 14.0 mm / 2.6 in x 1.2 in x 0.6 in

Product weight : 14.7g / 0.5oz

Documentation

Adafruit DC and Stepper Motor HAT for Raspberry Pi