TURBO – Build to Spin: The Design of a Motor Driver Board

On previous rover designs, we relied on third-party motor driver boards to control components such as the motors in the deep sampling unit. In this iteration of the Rover, we aimed for a more self-sufficient and scalable solution by developing our own motor driver board, capable of handling both BLDC and servo motors. The board was designed with reusability in mind and is intended to support a wide range of future applications.Revision B of the TURBO PCBBLDC motor for drilling:At the core of our BLDC driver section is the DRV8334 from Texas Instruments. With its wide operating voltage range from 4.5 to 60 V, it supports various motor configurations and significantly increases the board’s versatility.Key advantages include:– Phase current sensing for precise speed control – Extensive fault protection and safety settings – Multiple configuration options for commutation For the power stage, we selected suitable MOSFETs for both the high side and low side.