Monster Motor Shield 30V - 16A - 20kHz max

This is essentially a ramped up version of our Ardumoto motor driver shield. For this monster shield we’ve replaced the L298 H-bridge with a pair of VNH2SP30 full-bridge motor drivers. We’ve also beefed up the support circuitry so this board is capable of driving a pair of high-current motors! The VIN and motor out are pitched for our 5mm screw terminals (not included), making it easy to connect larger gauge wires.

Note: When using this board in extreme high-demand applications it may be necessary to improve thermal performance with a heat-sink or fan and to solder the wires directly to the board instead of using a screw terminal (in addition to the myriad other complications present in a high-current system) However, when using the board at currents up to 6A the chips will barely become noticeably warm.

Features

• Voltage max: 16V
• Maximum current rating: 30 A
• Practical Continuous Current: 14 A
• Current sensing available to Arduino analog pin
• MOSFET on-resistance: 19 mΩ (per leg)
• Maximum PWM frequency: 20 kHz
• Thermal Shutdown
• Undervoltage and Overvoltage shutdown

Overview

The VNH2SP30 Monster Moto Shield hosts a high-performance, fully integrated VNH2SP30 H-Bridge Motor Driver, ideal for automotive and industrial applications. It features STMicroelectronics' advanced VIPower™ M0 technology, allowing efficient integration of a true Power MOSFET with smart signal and protection circuitry. This motor driver is versatile for controlling motor direction, speed, and braking operations. The speed of the motor can be controlled in all possible conditions by the PWM up to 20 kHz though limited by the PWM frequency of Arduino UNO which is around 490 Hz for most pins. Pins 5 and 6 have a frequency of around 980 Hz. The shield connects to Pin 5 and 6 for PWMA and PWMB respectively.

Specification

Documents

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Datasheet (VNH2SP30)
• Example Code
• GitHub (Design Files & Example Code)