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 either 4x or 16x 2A outputs in any 12V or 24V system, with the solid state switching allowing PWM control, including for dimming LED strips. Outputs can be placed in parallel for more power if needed.
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 strips, high power motors, relays and solenoids from a Raspberry Pi.
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.
Features
Both models (4x and 16x output versions)
- Open Hardware, made in the UK: schematics and design files freely available.
- Working voltage 7-26V
- 4x or 16x fused outputs, each max. 2A, high-side switched
- 1x e-stop / global enable input
- Outputs can be driven in multiple ways, configurable by a header
- From Raspberry PI GPIOs
- Directly from external control, via wires to a header. Control inputs are tolerant up to 26V.
- From Raspberry PI GPIOs
- Buck converter generates 5.1V @ 3A continuous / 5A burst to power the Raspberry Pi (Pi 5 compatible!)
- Input and outputs are fused, with protection against over-voltage, reverse polarity, and inductive spikes
- LED indication of blown fuses
Additional features for the 4x output version only
- 1x fused input max. 7A
- Self-resetting input polyfuse
- Integrated PCA9685 PWM driver allows optional PWM control via I2C, compatible with Adafruit PCA9675 Python libraries
- Input and output connectors use high-quality Phoenix Contact screw terminals
- Version 2.4
Additional features for the 16x output version only
- 3x fused inputs max. 10A each (connect all inputs in parallel for 30A total board input power)
- 10A mini-blade fuses on inputs
- Spare fuse holder (including spare fuse)
- Inputs and outputs use JST VH connectors
- Version 1.0
For more information, schematics and documentation, see https://github.com/geezacoleman/owl-driver-board