SunFounder PCA9685 16 Channel 12 bit PWM Servo Driver for Arduino and Raspberry Pi

I liked this servo controller because their software was easy to download and install. It programmed well, but unfortunately caught fire when used with a robot arm. However, I am not sure if it was receiving less power than it needed. It would have been nice if the manufacturer had put instruction guide which listed power requirements. This controller could handle up to 16 servos, but you need to know how much power to give it per servo. I liked the controller, just wish it had not caught fire. Fortunately, it only damaged the controller, but smelled up the house.

With the 2 PCBs that I purchased, I can now drive 64 Servos total. Yes, 64 Servos. Your PCBs control 32 of these servos... ZERO issues. Excellent product. I would say I'd buy again... but I don't even have 64 servos yet !!!!! If I ever buy more than 64 servos, I'll buy these again to drive them, no question. These PCBs work fantastic. Thanks.

I bought two of these things to go with my Arduino MEGA and also an UNO. The Arduino(s) drive this board, and then I used the PWM outputs to drive logic level MOSFETS which in turn control 12V 1-amp LEDs. You can get the PCA9685 library from AdaFruit that Arduino uses to control the board. Everything works great! I've got LEDs all over the place and am worried that I might be starting to hallucinate from all of the flashing and strobing. :(

Great value!

I like this servo driver, so far so good - no issues. I like that it is already soldered and comes with capacitor which will prevent voltage drops when using multiple servos (however I've not tested more than 2 servos yet so I can't confirm). Price is good and quality high. I will write an update in couple of months as I'm using it to open / close some tiny doors few times daily, we will see how it performs after some time.

My only problem at this point is that the size of the board doesn't line up with the standard pi bonnet size. And sadly the details of the dimensions are no where to be found. The SunFounder wiki says the board is 62x26mm. Which is probably about right, but it would be nice to be able to find a layout of the board, including the exact location of the mounting holes. That information could be used to build a case with the stand offs in the right location. Other manufacturers have descriptions of the board layouts and not having that here makes installing it in a special built case, time consuming and difficult.

Work well, no issues. Use the adafruit library. You can put these in series and have a ton all controlled through I2C. I'm using a raspberry pi and removed the headers on the ends and replaced with JST plugs to make it more compact. Those Dupont connectors are big.

Every board I get goes up in smoke. Do not recommend

Habe dieses Modul für die Steuerung von LED Leisten an einem Raspberry gekauft. Allerdings beträgt die PWM Frequenz maximal 1 kHz. Dadurch erzeugt das Netzteil Störgeräusche in diesem Bereich. Bei niedrigeren Frequenzen wird das Geräusch leiser, allerdings beginnen die Streifen dann zu flackern. Erfahrungsgemäß funktionieren LED Streifen am besten mit >20 kHz. Dann sind die Störgeräusche im Netzteil auch nicht mehr hörbar und das Netzteil wird entlastet. Hierzu am besten einen Arduino verwenden und alle PWM Frequenzen auf 32 kHz einstellen. Das Modul selbst funktioniert wunderbar und ist für Servo-Ansteuerung bestens geeignet.

En mi caso necesitaba actuar 16 servomotores. Utilizando la librería Johnny-five me funcionó perfectamente ya que esta es compatible con el chip PCA9685 y pude realizar el proyecto necesario. Ninguna pega, lo único que podría decir es que la entrada de la fuente de alimentación es un poco endeble y los cables no quedan bien apretados del todo (si le das varios meneos se salen, no es que se salgan por si solos.) Una advertencia, los 16 canales PWM no llevan protección de polaridad inversa, así que si se conecta el servomotor mal se quemará con toda seguridad en pocos segundos. En cambio, la entrada de alimentación si lleva dicha protección por si conectamos mal accidentalmente, aunque se ve bien claro cual es el GND y cual es el V+.

marche très bien

I had originally purchased through another vendor but those turned out to be defective and were returned. The Sunfounder PWM drivers worked 100%, are very high quality PCB, well labelled and have headers installed for daisy chaining the I2C bus to other devices.

Item received.