Using the motor driver is really easy. Wire up the two input pins to your microcontroller's PWM outputs. We'll be using an Arduino but any microcontroller or microcomputer can be used. If you don't have PWM outputs you can also just use straight logic high and low but you wont get speed control

// Basic sketch for trying out the Adafruit DRV8871 Breakout

#define MOTOR_IN1 9
#define MOTOR_IN2 10

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);

  Serial.println("DRV8871 test");
  
  pinMode(MOTOR_IN1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(MOTOR_IN2, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {

  // ramp up forward
  digitalWrite(MOTOR_IN1, LOW);
  for (int i=0; i<255; i++) {
    analogWrite(MOTOR_IN2, i);
    delay(10);
  }

  // forward full speed for one second
  delay(1000);
  
  // ramp down forward
  for (int i=255; i>=0; i--) {
    analogWrite(MOTOR_IN2, i);
    delay(10);
  }

  // ramp up backward
  digitalWrite(MOTOR_IN2, LOW);
  for (int i=0; i<255; i++) {
    analogWrite(MOTOR_IN1, i);
    delay(10);
  }

  // backward full speed for one second
  delay(1000);

  // ramp down backward
  for (int i=255; i>=0; i--) {
    analogWrite(MOTOR_IN1, i);
    delay(10);
  }
}

This guide was first published on Jul 06, 2016. It was last updated on Jul 06, 2016.

This page (Usage) was last updated on Jul 06, 2016.

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