DC Motor Control chips (and breakout boards) contain logic to control a DC Motor:
- Speed: Many chips support PWM (pulse width modulation) or can be controlled by an external PWM signal to control the speed of the motor.
- Reverse Polarity: They contain transistor circuitry to reverse the voltage in order to control the direction in which the motor spins
Since most motors require high currents, these chips are typically capable of handling considerable currents.
Their functionality is not just useful for motors. These chips can in fact be used in a variety of scenarios:
- LED Dimming: the PWM functionality can be used to dim led light installations.
- High Load Switching: If the chips support an external PWM signal, they can be used to switch high loads with a GPIO. This is especially useful since dedicated MOSFet boards typically used for switching high loads often do not work efficiently with 3.3V control voltages and get hot or do not work, whereas many 3.3V motor control chips are available
- Reverse Polarity: Reversing polarity or acting as a change-over switch can be useful in a wealth of scenarios, including operating bi-polar signal LEDs (that emit different colors based on their polarity). However, one caveat here is that most motor control chips require complimentary logic levels on two pins to reverse voltage, so if you wanted to control polarity from one GPIO, you would need to add a simple logic inverter, i.e. by using a CD4011 or CD4093.
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(content created Aug 27, 2024)