It would be great to get an unsoldered all through hole discrete H-bridge kit capable of approximately 10A. The kit would consist of PCB and components only. Support for motor voltages from 5 to 24V and a simple logic circuit to prevent shoot through would be good. Would like this to be in the neighborhood of $12 for a single H-bridge or $16 for dual H-bridge. Maybe I’m dreaming on the price, but I think a motor controller could be more affordable if it requires assembly. If the PCB traces are thick and wide enough, the same PCB could be used for a higher current H-bridge using more expensive transistors, drivers, heat sinks, etc.
I think offering an H-bridge kit could help people learn about discrete H-bridges while saving a couple of bucks. I personally think an H-bridge is a fundamental part of a robot, up there with a microcontroller.
Thanks for your suggestion. I also think H-bridges are fundamental, that’s why we offer quite a few of them. Unfortunately, making electronics kits is more expensive than having pre-assembled boards (at least for us): the through-hole parts are more expensive, the circuit boards would have to be bigger, and we would have to have people manually counting out parts instead of having our pick and place machines automatically populate them. Plus, some of the good parts we would want to use for making a good driver are only available in surface-mount versions. So, the proposition becomes: do you want to pay more for a lower-performing product that you also have to assemble? In our past experience with similar kits, the answer has been, “no”. So, we are unlikely to design and manufacture such a kit. If someone has one, we’d definitely be interested in carrying it.
Thanks for your response. I was thinking a comprehensive kit is always best when compared to a bare PCB, but a bare PCB is an option nonetheless. If the PCB was versatile enough to accommodate different population configurations including usage of common power transistors (TO220), then I suppose it may be a good H-bridge footprint board. This is probably not very feasible or attractive for you to design/fabricate/market, and I’m not sure how much a 2oz / ~4in^2 PCB would retail for in comparison to other complete h-bridge products. Anyhow I appreciate your feedback, best regards
