16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver – I2C Interface – PCA9685

Specifications:

• This product comes with a fully tested and assembled breakout as well as
• 4 pieces of 3×4 male straight header (for servo/LED plugs),
• 2-pin terminal block (for power) and
• Piece of 6-pin 0.1″ header (to plug into a breadboard).
• A little light soldering will be required to assemble and customize the board by attaching the desired headers but it is a 15 minute task that even a beginner can do. You may also use right-angle 3×4 headers?
• Dimensions (no headers or terminal block) 2.5″ x 1″ x 0.1″ (62.5mm x 25.4mm x 3mm)
• Weight (no headers or terminal block): 5.5grams
• Weight (with 3×4 headers & terminal block): 9grams

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Descriptions:

You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or perhaps you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. You realize your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs, what now? Get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. When we saw this chip, we quickly realized what an excellent add-on this would be.?Using only two pins, control 16 free-running PWM outputs!?You can even chain up 62 breakouts to control up to 992 PWM outputs (which we would really like to see since it would be glorious)

• It’s an I?C-controlled PWM driver with a built in clock. That means that, unlike the TLC5940 family, you do not need to continuously send it signal tying up your microcontroller, it’s completely free running!
• It is 5V compliant, which means you can control it from a 3.3V microcontroller and still safely drive up to 6V outputs (this is good for when you want to control white or blue LEDs with 3.4 forward voltages)
• 6 address select pins so you can wire up to 62 of these on a single I?C bus, a total of 992 outputs – that’s a lot of servos or LEDs
• Adjustable frequency PWM up to about 1.6 KHz
• 12-bit resolution for each output – for servos, that means about 4us resolution at 60Hz update rate
• Configurable push-pull or open-drain output
• Output enable pin to quickly disable all the outputs We wrapped up this lovely chip into a breakout board with a couple nice extras?
  Terminal block for power input (or you can use the 0.1″ breakouts on the side)
• Reverse polarity protection on the terminal block input
• Green power-good LED
• 3 pin connectors in groups of 4 so you can plug in 16 servos at once (Servo plugs are?slightlywider than 0.1″ so you can only stack 4 next to each other on 0.1″ header)
• “Chain-able” design
• A spot to place a big capacitor on the V line (in case you need it)
• 220 ohm series resistors on all the output lines to protect them, and to make driving LEDs trivial
• Solder jumpers for the 6 address select pins

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Package Including:

3 x PCA9685 16 Channel 12-Bit PWM Servo Motor Driver IIC Module