BLDC motor drivers
This library will be compatible with the most of 3 phase BLDC motor drivers. Such as L6234, DRV8305, DRV8313 or even L293.
At this moment, a low-cost BLDC driver board is still reasonably hard to find making our choice of hardware is quiet restricted. This is the one of the motivations to develop the SimpleFOCShield, a versatile and simple BLDC driver. Fortunately, the community is starting to gain momentum in this direction and it is probably a matter of time before BLDC motors become a standard in the hobby community as well, what is really exciting! 😃
The choice what kind of BLDC driver you will need in your project directly depends of the BLDC motor you are using. Therefore we can divide them in two groups:
- Low power BLDC drivers - Gimbal motors (R>10Ω)
- High performance BLDC drivers - High-power BLDC motors (R<1Ω)
Low power boards ( gimbal motors )
Here are some BLDC driver boards that are designed for gimbal motors and work with the library off-the-shelf. Gimbal motors usually have more than 10 pole pairs and have internal resistance >10Ω. They are designed for very smooth performance on low speeds. Gimbal motors are very versatile and are perfect for high-quality replacement of stepper motors and DC servo motors.
| Examples | Description | Specifications | Link | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Arduino SimpleFOCShieldv1 | - L6234 chip - 1 motor - Arduino Shield - Encoder+I2C Pullups | More info | 15€ |
 | Arduino SimpleFOCShieldv2 | - L6234 chip - 1 motor - Arduino Shield - Encoder+I2C Pullups - In-line current sensing - On-board voltage regulator | More info | 20€ |
 | Drotek L6234 breakout board | - L6234 chip - 1 motor - 25x25mm | Drotek Ebay | 30€ |
Alternatively, you can find gimbal controller boards with integrated BLDC drivers and microcontroller chips.
| Examples | Description | Specifications | Link | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | HMBGC V2.2 | - 4599 mosfet - 2 motors - 50x30mm - Atmega328 | Ebay | 20€ |
 | BGC 3.0 | - 4599 mosfet - 2 motors - 50x50mm - Atmega328 | Aliexpress | 10€ |
 | BGC 3.1 | - l6234 - 2 motors - 50x50mm - Atmega328 | Ebay | 10€ |
 | Storm32 BGC | - DRV8313 - 3 motors - 50x50mm - Stm32f103 | Ebay | 25€ |
Finally one of the cheapest possible solutions for running a gimbal BLDC motor is to use one of the dual DC motor motor drivers such as:
| Examples | Description | Specifications | Link | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Stepper driver L298N | - L298N chip - 1 motor - 5V-35V - 2A(MAX single bridge) | Ebay | 2€ |
High performance boards
SimpleFOClibrary will support basically any BLDC motor driver which can be controlled using 3 PWM or 6PWM signals. Up to this moment (version 1.3.1) the library doesn’t implement the current control loop. The motor torque is controlled via voltage directly (more info)
Here are the boards that have been tested and are compatible with the library:
| Examples | Description | Specifications | Link | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | DRV8302 driver | - DRV8302 chip - 1 motor - 45V/27A - BEMF/current sensing - fault protection | Aliexpress | 30€ |
 | DRV8301 driver | - DRV8301 chip - 1 motor - 45V/27A - BEMF/current sensing - fault protection - SPI configuration | Aliexpress | 45€ |
 | B-G431B-ESC1 | - STM32G431CB chip - On-board ST-LINK/V2-1 - 1 motor - 30V/40A - current sensing - fault protection | STM webiste Mouser | 16€ |
 | Infineon BLDC-SHIELD_IFX007T shield | - IFX007T half-bridges - 1 motor - 40V/30A - BEMF/current sensing - fault protection | Infineon | 40€ |
 | @byDagor Dagor Brushless Controller | - DRV8305 driver - 1 motor - 25V/40A - Current sensing - Integrated sensor - Esp32 based - fault protection | simplefoc shop comming soon | 40€ |
 | Arduino SimpleFOCPowerShield | - BTN8982 half-bridges - 1 motor - 40V/30A - fault protection Release v1: - In-line current sensing - I2C/Hall/Encoder pullups - 2x Stackable | simplefoc shop comming soon | ~25€ |