DRV8801 Single Brushed DC Motor Driver Carrier Overview DRV8801 single brushed DC motor driver carrier with dimensions. Texas Instruments DRV8801 is a tiny H-bridge motor driver IC that can be used for bidirectional control of a single brushed DC motor at 8 to 36 V. It can supply up to about 1 A continuously and can tolerate peak currents up to 2.8 A for a few seconds, making it a good choice for small motors that run on relatively high voltages. Since this board is a carrier for the DRV8801, we recommend careful reading of the DRV8801 datasheet (1MB pdf). The board ships populated with all of its SMD components, including the DRV8801. For a dual-channel driver with a similar operating voltage range, please consider our A4990 carrier. For lower-voltage alternatives to the DRV8801, please consider our DRV8833 and DRV8835 dual motor driver carriers. Features Drives a single brushed DC motor Motor supply voltage: 836 V Logic supply voltage: 3.36.5 V Output current: 1 A continuous (2.8 A peak) Simple interface requires only two I/O lines (one for direction and another for speed) Current sense output proportional to motor current (approx. 500 mV per A) Inputs are 3V- and 5V-compatible Under-voltage lockout and protection against over-current and over-temperature Using the motor driverMinimal wiring diagram for connecting a microcontroller to a DRV8801 single brushed DC motor driver carrier. In a typical application, power connections are made on one side of the board and control connections are made on the other. Aside from motor and power connections, the only required pins are DIR and PWM (called PHASE and ENABLE in the DRV8801 datasheet, respectively). A PWM signal can be applied to the PWM/ENABLE pin to achieve variable speed control in the direction determined by the state of the DIR/PHASE pin. The carrier board pulls PWM low by default, so the driver is only enabled when this pin is supplied with a high signal. The DIR pin does not have a defined default state, which means outputs could behave erratically if the DIR pin is left disconnected while the PWM pin is high. The BRAKE pin determines whether the motor brakes or coasts when PWM pin is low (this pin is called MODE1 in the DRV8801 datasheet). The carrier board pulls it high, which corresponds to braking (both motor outputs are shorted together through ground). Setting the BRAKE pin low sets the outputs to coast whenever the PWM pin is low (both motor outputs are off). We generally recommend leaving this high while supplying a PWM signal to the PWM pin to get drive-brake (or slow-decay) operation, as this typically provides a more linear relationship between PWM duty cycle and motor speed than drive-coast (or fast-decay), and it can result in better performance at low duty cycles. The following truth table shows how the PWM, DIR, and BRAKE pins affect the driver outputs: DRV8801 Truth Table PWM/ENABLE DIR/PHASE BRAKE/MODE1 OUT+ OUT- operating mode PWM forward/brake at speed PWM 1 1 L (H/L) PWM %