High Power Motor Drivers for 3.3V micros

I’m seeing more and more microcontrollers going to lower power 3.3V setups (instead of 5V TTL). Do any of the Pololu high-power motor drivers operate on 3.3V logic? I know I can get a level shifter, but I’d prefer not to have another component, and another failure point. If there isn’t one now, Pololu, could you make one? Your drivers are the best I’ve used, by a wide margin. :smiley:

-DR

I’ve used Pololu motor drivers with 3.3V logic without any problems, indeed almost all 5V logic will recognize a 3.3 V output high signal as valid. Switching usually takes place at about 2.7 V.

There is a small voltage drop from Vcc to the output pin of any device, so for extra certainty, one can add a 3.3K to 10K pullup resistor from the output pin to 3.3V power.

Our motor drivers and controllers should have a logic voltage range specified either in the “Specification” tab or “Description” tab of the particular product page. For instance, most of our High-Power Motor Driver product pages state that the minimum high input signal threshold is 3.5 V, so we do not recommend connecting this device directly to a 3.3 V controller (it might work, but it could be unreliable). The exception to this is the new G2 High-Power Motor Driver 24v13 which has a minimum logic voltage of 1.8V.

Additionally, all of our Simple Motor Controllers should work with 3.3V systems (although they are 5V tolerant).

If you have a particular voltage and current range you are interested in, I might be able to offer some suggestions.

-Brandon