Help Needed with Motor Driver Compatibility for Custom PCB

hardware support
1

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a custom PCB for a small robotics project using a BLDC motor and planning to control it with SimpleFOC. I’m trying to decide between the DRV8313 and the L6234 drivers. I’ve seen both mentioned here, but I’m not sure which one offers better reliability with SimpleFOC on an STM32-based board.

Has anyone tested both and noticed performance differences, especially under varying loads or at low RPMs?

Also, I’m looking at current sensing options. Would using inline shunt resistors be more stable than relying on sensorless estimation in this case?

By the way, while researching some data visualization for another part of this project, I stumbled across a great tableau tutorial that helped me map sensor data easily. If anyone’s interested in integrating motor telemetry into dashboards, that might be a good route!

Appreciate any advice from those who’ve built custom boards or worked with either of these drivers. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
HJ Bishop

2

Also curious on the groups feedback on the drivers.

Sensored is typically preferred, always a good step if you can prove out the system sensor less first

Do you have other data such as the motor you wish to drive, battery voltage?

3

I think depends of your application, because the DRV8313 is cheaper and have more stock than the L6234.
And the peak current of DVR8313 is 3A, the L6234 peak current is 5A with a good disipation.
I guess the DVR8313 has a temperature protection, I don’t sure about that.

With de RPM I don’t know if one is better, I think the DRV8313 is specially for BLDC motors, better switching control.