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• BLDC motor drivers
  • Low power boards ( gimbal motors )
  • High performance boards

BLDC motor drivers

This library will be compatible with most 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 quite 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 on 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)

⚠️ No drone ESCs!

Traditional drone ESCs are not suitable for FOC because they typically use a fixed commutation scheme (6-step usually), can only be velocity controlled and lack the necessary interfaces for connecting sensors and implementing advanced control algorithms.

It is a pitty, because they are very cheap and widely available and very powerful!

If doubting if your board is compatible or not, please ask in the community forum, we will be happy to help you out!

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 an internal resistance >10Ω. They are designed for very smooth performance at low speeds. Gimbal motors are very versatile and are perfect for high-quality replacement of stepper motors and DC servo motors.

Alternatively, you can find gimbal controller boards with integrated BLDC drivers and microcontroller chips.

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:

L298N limitations

L298N is based on bipolar transistor technology and has relatively long transistor rise times which can produce non-smooth operation. We suggest the L298N based boards only in closed loop mode, as the position sensor can correct possible noise from the driver. It can also be a good board for beginner users, to get familiar with the FOC as a cheap solution, but with certain performance limits.

High performance boards

SimpleFOClibrary will support basically any BLDC motor driver which can be controlled using 3 PWM or 6 PWM signals. Additionally, drivers with current sensing can directly control torque, whereas all other drivers can use estimated current (more info).

Here are the boards that have been tested and are compatible with the library:

IFX007T and BTN8982 chips limitations

IFX007T and BTN8982 are based on relatively old transistor technology and have relatively long transistor rise times which can produce non-smooth operation. We suggest the boards based on these chips to be used only in closed loop mode, as the position sensor can correct possible noise from the driver. It can also be a good board for beginner users, to get familiar with the high-current FOC as an inexpensive solution, but with certain performance limits.

🔎 Find more boards

There are many more boards compatible with the library, the above tables bring just a few examples. To find more boards, you can search for the BLDC drivers mentioned in the tables, or simply search for “simplefoc” on your favourite shopping website.

For example:

• Aliexpress: “simplefoc” search
• Ebay: “simplefoc” search

You can also check the community projects to see what other users are using in their projects, and share your own project as well!

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