Servo Shield for WeMos D1 Mini

Posted on March 3rd, 2016

Not just for servos, this can also be used as a general-purpose 16-channel PWM output shield.

Includes a PCA9685 16-channel PWM output controller, which is ideal for driving up to 16 servos or LEDs. Uses I2C so it only needs 2 I/O pins to control it, and you can even have multiple shields stacked together with different addresses.

Features include:

• 16 PWM output channels at 3.3V
• I2C interface with pull-up resistors
• Configurable I2C address to allow stacking. Default address 0x40
• PCA9685 PWM controller IC.
• SCL: D1. SDA: D2
• External power terminals for powering servos at 6V
• Power jumper to link D1 Mini 5V rail to servo power
• OE (active low Output Enable) broken out for manual connection if required
• Power LED to show when servo power is available

Note that the PWM channels only output 3.3V. This is sufficient to control most typical hobby servos (we haven’t found any that don’t work yet) but you should check first if your servo can be controlled at 3.3V. The servo itself can still run at 5V or 6V or whatever: this is just for the voltage of the control signal.

I haven’t received PCBs for these yet, so I’ll update this page with more info and pics when they arrive.

Source files: github.com/SuperHouse/D1MSERVO

Comments are closed.