How to use the HG7881 (L9110) Dual Channel Motor Driver Module

This article explains how to use the HG7881 (L9110) Dual Channel Motor Driver Module.

The HG7881 (L9110) is a compact motor driver chip that supports a voltage range from 2.5-12V at 800mA of continuous current. These chips have built-in output clamp diodes to protect your sensitive microcontroller electronics. They are suitable for very small robot projects.

Each HG7881 (L9110) chip is able to drive a single DC motor using two digital control inputs. One input is used to select the motor direction while the other is used to control the motor speed. Speed is controlled by using PWM Pulse Width Modulation. Motor drivers typically have what is called a truth table that determines the effect of its inputs. The truth table for a single HG7881 (L9110) chip is as follows:

Note that the actual direction of "forward" and "reverse" depends on how the motors are mounted and wired. You can always change the direction of a motor by reversing its wiring.

The HG7881 (L9110) Dual Channel Motor Driver Module uses two of these motor driver chips. Each driver chip is intended to drive one motor, so having two means that this module can control two motors independently. Each motor channel uses the same truth table as above. Each set of screw terminals is used to connect a motor. Refer to the table below for pin header connections.

We recommend using input 1A to control the speed of each motor and input 1B to control the direction.

The following Arduino sketch shows how to control a single motor. Hookup instructions are provided by the comments. This example should be easily adaptable to other microcontroller platforms.

It is important to note that the HG7881 (L9110) Dual Channel Motor Driver Module is very simple. The voltage used to drive the chip is the same voltage used to drive the motors. This means that if you are using a 5V chip, you should expect to drive 5V motors. Choose a higher performance motor driver for more power and control options. Banana Robotics has a wide range of motor drivers and intelligent controllers to choose from.