BLDC driver v6

Powerful BRUSHLESS Motor Driver version 6 is a small brushless motor driver intended to drive motors up to 300W, a great fit for many robotics projects.

Product Highlights:

• Input voltage: 7-25V (30V surge)
• Continuous Output Current without heatsink: (TBC) 20A (Peak), 14A (RMS)
• Connectors for quick and easy wiring, no soldering required.
  Power: XT30, Motor: MR30, CAN: GH-2P, I2C: GH-4P, DEBUG: SH-4P.
• Small size: L: 58mm, W: 26mm, T: 8.5mm.
• Very low power dissipation, less than 7W (TBC) power dissipation when operating at 20A peak motor current (14A RMS).
• RDS(on) based current sensing with temperature compensation for high efficiency.
• Very low idle power, less than 0.5W (TBC) with motor holding position under no load.
• I2C (1Mbps) and CAN bus (8Mbps with SIC) is available for communication with the main controller.
• Up to 1A at 3.3V or 5V (independantly selectable by software) can be sourced from the I2C and sensor ports to power external circuitry.
• Two M2 screw holes (max screw head diameter 4mm) are available for mounting.
• Maximum PWM frequency: 50KHz
• Maximum Motor Speed: 160000 ERPM
• Supported Encoders: Sin/Cos Encoder (can be implemented using linear hall sensors, or magnetic encoder chip such as AS5115)
• Supported Motors: Robomaster M2006 P36, Robomaster M3508 P19, more motor and encoder combinations coming soon
• PCB specs: 14 layer, 2oz copper on all layers, 2.0mm thickness, epoxy filled vias, min via hole 0.2mm, components on both sides.

Comparison with Powerful BRUSHLESS Motor Driver version 5

The new version has been redesigned for better ease of use, with the return of the screw holes for mounting using M2 screws. In addition, the PCB width has been reduced while slightly increasing the thickness. The PCB length has increased, but in reality, the space of the connectors takes up was neglected in the previous design. Once you account for the connectors, the new version takes up less space than the previous version due to the connectors being packed closer together.

The PCB surface area has been increased slightly by fully utilising the space under the connectors, and combined with the thicker 14 layer PCB and upgraded MOSFETs, leads to noticeably improved thermal performance.

The current sensing accuracy should be improved as the DRV8353 should not have offset calibration issues seen in the DRV8323 (TBC). Additionally, the current sensing circuit PCB layout has been redesigned for higher accuracy, and the thicker PCB leads to better thermal coupling, for more accurate temperature compensation of RDSon. The current sensing and gate drive performance at low input voltages has also been improved as the MOSFET gate voltage is regulated more accurately.

The idle power comsumption has also been significantly reduced by a new highly efficient power supply architecture providing 10V to the gate driver and 1.8V to the microcontroller. The full load efficiency is also slightly increased due to the thicker PCB having lower resistance, new MOSFETs, and better thermals leading to MOSFETs running cooler and more efficiently.

A new high current software switchable voltage output is available on the I2C and sensor ports, which can output either 3.3V 1A or 5V 1A. This lets you provide power to much larger devices such as a Raspberry Pi without using an external regulator, improving convenience and saving more space in many applications. The 3.3V option is still available for powering microcontrollers such as ESP32, leading to more flexibility in use case. The outputs also feature reverse current blocking, which allows multiple outputs to be put in parallel safely, and is less likely than the previous version to suffer permanent damage in case of over load.