Community's list of tested off-the-shelf drivers

hardware support
2

Here’s a pic of some drivers I found in my box of, well, drivers:

DDF6FFF0-55F6-430D-B2D2-D98BBF32EB36_1_105_c
DDF6FFF0-55F6-430D-B2D2-D98BBF32EB36_1_105_c1556×505 193 KB

All of them are dual-H-bridge motor drivers, all of them can drive 2 DC motors or 1 stepper. But only the L298N (on the right) can drive BLDCs, it seems.

The are, from left to right:

  1. DRV8833 - AliExpress - Datasheet - Can’t get it to work. The init routine sort of runs, but the motor then won’t rotate.
  2. MX1508 (?) - AliExpress - “Datasheet” seemingly does not really exist - Not working
  3. HG7881CP - AliExpress - Datasheet - Not working

In all three cases, the initialisation seems to do something, moving the motor a few steps in the usual way, but the drive does not work at all, with the motor emitting a low hum, not moving, and occasionally showing a bit of movement if you change the target velocity, move it by hand or reverse direction.

Its a shame, because these boards are super-cheap and fairly small, and promise a bit more efficiency than the L298N due to their FET-based designs.