22/07/2025 5:35 am
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I'm designing a robot and using a motor driver (L298N/H-Bridge/DRV8871, etc.), and I'm concerned about potential short circuits—especially during stall conditions or wiring mistakes.
What are the recommended methods to protect a motor driver from short circuits or overcurrent damage? Should I use external fuses, current sensing, or something like TVS diodes or polyfuses?
Any best practices or common protection techniques used in industry would be appreciated.
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25/07/2025 5:03 am
To protect a motor driver from short circuits, one of the most effective methods is to use a fast-blow fuse or a resettable polyfuse on the power supply line to the driver.
This helps cut off the current quickly if a short occurs. Additionally, placing flyback diodes across the motor terminals (if not already built into the driver) protects against voltage spikes caused by motor inductance. For more advanced protection, a current-sense resistor can be added to monitor current flow, and a microcontroller can disable the driver if the current exceeds safe limits.
Alternatively, using modern motor driver ICs like the DRV8871 or BTS7960 is highly recommended, as they come with built-in protections such as overcurrent, thermal shutdown, and undervoltage lockout.
Ensuring proper cooling and heat dissipation also helps prevent damage from thermal stress that may result from sustained high current.
