00:00Ever wired up a motor project and watched the driver get hot, the motor stutter, or the whole
00:04thing let the magic smoke out? Same problem every time, the driver. I went hunting for the best
00:11deals on L290 3D chips, and these 5 lots turned out to be the ones I'd actually keep on hand.
00:17Let's look at them. First up is this 20-piece mixed lot for about a dollar.
00:23You get the L290 3D, but the lineup matters, there's a CD4050 oscillator, a 74LS190 counter,
00:31TMS4116 and SS560 parts in there too. For a stepper build, the L290 3D does the direction
00:37and the 4050 gives you the clock one order covers both halves of the circuit instead of two separate
00:42purchases. Close to 5,000 sold, 5-star average. For a buck, that's a no-brainer for stocking a
00:50drawer. This one's 5 pieces for $1.40, and honestly it's the most interesting bundle on
00:56the list. Alongside the L290 3D you get L4962A and L6210 dual drivers, plus an L6574 that's a proper
01:05bipolar stepper driver. So if your project mixes small DC motors with a stepper, one chip handles
01:11both jobs and you skip the hunt for a second driver type entirely. About 4,700 sold, and people
01:18rate it 4.6 out of 5, which is about right for chips like these. Next is 10 pieces for
01:24$0.85,
01:25the cheapest bundle here. It's mostly SG3525A PWM controllers, plus a KA7500B and L293D in both
01:34DIP and SOP16 packages. The SG3525A is the interesting one, it's a PWM controller, so you can
01:42dial motor speed with a potentiometer instead of living with full-on or full-off. Pair it with an
01:48L293D and you've got real speed control for less than the price of a coffee. Over 4,500 sold,
01:55still holding a 5-star average. Now this one saves me the most actual work. 5 L293D stepper driver
02:03chips, $0.80, and each one already has 4 diodes included. That matters more than it sounds,
02:09the L293D has no internal freewheel diodes, and skipping them is exactly why people fry their motors.
02:15Someone already did that part for you, so you're not soldering a separate bag of diodes at midnight.
02:21Same 4.6 rating as the other bundle, and roughly 4,400 sold, so plenty of people have learned this
02:27lesson already. Last up is the same chip in a 10-pack for $4.55. Yeah, it's the priciest per
02:35piece
02:35option on this page, and I know that sounds like a bad deal, but this one holds a 4.8
02:39average,
02:40the best rating of the whole bunch, and you're getting enough for a couple of projects plus
02:44spares. If you crack a DIP-16 while soldering, the replacement is already sitting in the bag.
02:51That's less a purchase and more insurance. All 5 links are in the description,
02:56along with which one I'd grab for a first build. If this saved you from ordering the wrong driver,
03:01hit like and subscribe, I'll keep covering the cheap chips that make robotics projects way less
03:06painful.
