H-bridge motor controller

General
1

Hey gang,

I’m working on getting the solenoid valves on the Hive kegerator operational and need an h-bridge motor controller to send the positive/negative pulses to the solenoid.

I’m looking for something like the L293D or SN754410. Does anybody have one laying around that I can have/buy? Or is anyone placing a larger Mouser/Digikey/Adafruit/SparkFun/etc. order soon? I can’t quite justify paying $5 to ship a $2.50 part. Debco didn’t have one and the owner didn’t seem interested in helping me figure out an alternative.

Thanks,

Ian M

2

Ian,

If you don’t mind the integration already being done, I believe I have a motor shield at home. Let me check this afternoon.

3

How much current? Voltage? I probably have one beefier than you need.
-D

4

Chris, thanks. I’ll be at the meeting tomorrow. I’ll be using an Arduino anyway, so a motor controller shield would be just fine, albeit serious overkill, haha.

Dave, the solenoid is rated at 4.5VDC at 500mA. But it only requires a 50ms or so pulse to actuate, nothing sustained.

Thanks guys,

Ian M

5

heh. I’m reasonably certain I have some that will do 15-20A sustained @ 12V. I’ll look when I’m downstairs today.
-D

6

Just an FYI you can just use four transistors to do this if you have the spare pins to drive them.