“Made a Raspberry Pi Pico powered DC 12V-5V FAN Driver
So here’s something cool: a 5V to 12V DC motor driver based around a Raspberry Pi Pico Board and a couple of electronic components.
The Raspberry Pi Pico is the heart of this project.
In order to drive the DC motor load, we have integrated the AO4406 N-channel Mosfet IC, a high-power Mosfet used in SMPS for fast switching purposes. Its Vds is 30V and it can withstand a maximum of 13A of current.
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In a future project, we will use this arrangement in a PC project to control the DC fan through the Motor Driver Board. For now, we are utilizing a 12V PC fan as a test load.
As for the workings of this motor driver board, it has a few modes.
The load operates at 255 duty cycles on the first tap. The load will operate at 140 duty cycles with the second tap, and it will be turned off on the third press.
This article is about the complete construction of this motor driver board, so let’s get started with the build.
Materials Required
These were the materials used in this project:
- Custom PCB
- AO4406 N-channel Mosfet IC
- 10K Resistor
- Raspberry Pi Pico
- AMS1117 3.3V
- 10uF 1206 Capacitor
- 1uF 1206 Capacitor
- SMD push button
- M7 Diode
- DC Fan 12V
- 12V Power source
The schematic, which is divided into three sections—the AMS1117 part, the Raspberry Pi Pico portion, and the Mosfet as switch setup—is the first stage in the PCB design process.
The A04406 Mosfet, a N channel High power Mosfet IC in an SOIC8 package, is what we utilized for this project. Its source is connected to GND, its drain is attached to a CON2 port, and its other end is connected to 12V from the input side. This CON2 will be used to connect the load, in our case a 12V DC fan. The Mosfet gate is connected in series with GPIO0 via a 10K resistor.
The second section includes the AMS1117 setup, which is primarily the AMS1117 minimal setup with a 10uF CAP at the AMS1117’s input and a 1uF CAP at the output. Between the input VCC and the AMS1117’s input, we add an M7 diode to reduce excessive power coming from the input side.
Additionally, we added an LED that will function as an indicator and is in series with the input side via a 1K resistor.
The Raspberry Pi Pico is located in the third section. It is paired with a toggle switch that is linked to both GPIO1 and GND. When the switch is pressed, GPIO1 is connected to GND.
After setting up the schematic, we export the netlist and convert the schematic into a board file.
We model a 24 x 80 mm outline in the layout, and we arrange all of the SMD parts, with the switch in the center, on the top side. The Pico is positioned on the bottom side.”