The OWL Driver Board is a solid-state relay HAT for the Raspberry Pi. It was developed for use with the Open Weed Locator but is suitable for any industrial, automotive or agricultural application.
It allows a Raspberry Pi to drive 4x 2A outputs in any 12V or 24V system. It is able to tolerate high levels of electrical noise, reverse polarity, short circuit conditions and over voltage. It also protects the Pi from all this electrical nastiness and provides a filtered source of 5V @ 5A!
It's ideal for use safely driving LED strings, high power motors, relays and solenoids from a Raspberry Pi.
NEW version v2.4 includes better screw terminals, an 89%-efficient 5A Raspberry Pi -compatible power supply, and a global enable/emergency stop input connector.
- Open Hardware, made in the UK: schematics and design files freely available.
- Working voltage 7-26V
- 4x fused outputs, each max. 2A, high-side switched
- 1x fused input max. 7A
- 1x e-stop / global enable input
- Integrated PCA9685 PWM driver allows optional PWM control, compatible with Adafruit PCA9675 Python libraries
- Outputs can be driven in multiple ways, configurable by a header
- From Raspberry PI GPIOs
- From an optional on-board PCA9685 PWM driver (not included in shipping modules)
- Directly from external control, via wires to a header. Control inputs are tolerant up to 26V.
- Buck converter generates 5.1V @ 3A continuous / 5A burst to power the Raspberry Pi (Pi 5 compatible!)
- Input and output connectors use high-quality Phoenix Contact screw terminals
- Input and outputs are fused, with protection against over-voltage, reverse polarity, and inductive spikes
- LED indication of blown fuses
- Version 2.4
The board aims to be difficult to misconfigure and hard to damage. Self-resetting polyfuses on the input and outputs limit current, and TVS+Schottky diodes provide reverse polarity protection, protection against noise and inductive voltage spikes, and over-voltage protection. This protection also extends to communication buses with the Raspberry Pi.
For more information, schematics and documentation, see https://github.com/geezacoleman/owl-driver-board