Pololu Dual G2 High-Power Motor Driver 18v18 for Raspberry Pi power header addition question

Support Motor controllers/drivers and motors
1

I recently purchased a

Pololu Dual G2 High-Power Motor Driver 18v18 for Raspberry Pi (Partial Kit)

for use in my Senior Project, and in this project we are using the Driver in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi 4 to control a linear actuator to apply a force. We also have an encoder that we would like to use as feedback, the Driver allows us to connect to the SPI gpio pins of the RPi by adding headers, which i have done, I would also like to power the encoder through the Pi, which means i need to do it through the Driver as it takes up all the header pins on the Pi. I saw that there are the VM pin areas on the left side of the board which can be used to power circuits like the encoder, however the counter for the encoder only wants 5V, and I wasn’t able to find what voltage those VM pins are. I really don’t want to fry anything as getting replacement parts in time just won’t happen, is this information anyone has?

2

Hello.

VM is just reverse voltage protected VIN, so I would not recommend using that to power 5V encoders. Instead, you could use the VREG or REG OUT pins on the left side of the board. Please note, if you have cut any of the traces associated with disconnecting your Raspberry Pi from the motor driver expansion board’s regulator (as described in the “Power” section of the product page description), then your only option will be to use the REG OUT pin.

If you have any concerns about things blowing up, you are welcome to post a picture of your connections before you apply power so I can check them out.

- Patrick