DC Motor 21 Click Board

How Does The DC Motor 21 Click Board™ Work?

The DC Motor 21 Click Board™ is based on the A3910, a dual half-bridge motor driver designed for low voltage power applications from Allegro Microsystems. The DC Motor 21 Click Board™ is controlled via several GPIO pins of the mikroBUS™ socket and has a wide operating voltage range with an output current capacity of 500mA maximum. The integrated MOSFETs, which configures a half-bridge circuit inside the A3910, provide the possibility to drive dual DC motors but also allow to be used in the full-bridge configuration to drive a single bidirectional DC motor. Thanks to its plane features and benefits, the DC Motor 21 Click Board™ is targeted at the consumer market with end applications to low voltage equipment.

Using an integrated MOS switch improves braking action for the motor, compared to implementation with a simple clamp diode. Besides, it also features built-in protection such as crossover current and thermal shutdown protection, alongside "Sleep" Standby mode with zero drain-current.

As mentioned in the product description, the DC Motor 21 Click Board™ communicates with MCU using several GPIO pins. To turn ON the internal MOSFETs of the A3910, they need to be switched by the logic level, which is input to the control input pins: HN1, LN1, HN2, and LN2 pins routed to the AN, CS, PWM, and INT pins of the mikroBUS™ socket. Thereby, the Drive/Break/Coast/Sleep motor functions can be selected according to the state of its input control signals.

The DC Motor 21 Click Board™ can operate with both 3.3V and 5V logic voltage levels selected via the VCC SEL jumper. This way, it is allowed for both 3.3V and 5V capable MCUs to use communication lines properly. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing easy-to-use functions and an example code that can be used, as a reference, for further development.

SPECIFICATIONS

PINOUT DIAGRAM

This table shows how the pinout on the DC Motor 21 Click Board™ corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).

Notes	Pin					Pin	Notes
Motor 1 Control Input	HN1	1	AN	PWM	16	HN2	Motor 2 Control Input
NC	2	RST	INT	15	LN2	Motor 2 Control Input
Motor 1 Control Input	LN1	3	CS	RX	14	NC
NC	4	SCK	TX	13	NC
NC	5	MISO	SCL	12	NC
NC	6	MOSI	SDA	11	NC
Power Supply	3.3V	7	3.3V	5V	10	5V	Power Supply
Ground	GND	8	GND	GND	9	GND	Ground

ONBOARD SETTINGS AND INDICATORS

DC MOTOR 21 CLICK ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS