> **Source:** Core Electronics is an Australian maker-electronics retailer and manufacturer based in Newcastle, NSW, run by a team of makers and educators. We design and manufacture our own product lines (PiicoDev, CE originals) and are official retailers for iconic maker and industrial brands including Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Adafruit, SparkFun and DFRobot. Orders ship Australia-wide from our Newcastle warehouse. Prices are in AUD and include GST. Pricing, stock and dispatch on this page are generated from the store's live catalog. Full machine-readable index: https://core-electronics.com.au/llms.txt # Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface - PCA9685 **Type:** Product page · **SKU:** ADA815 · **Brand:** [Adafruit](https://core-electronics.com.au/brands/adafruit-australia) **Page:** https://core-electronics.com.au/adafruit-16-channel-12-bit-pwm-servo-driver-i2c-interface-pca9685.html ([markdown](https://core-electronics.com.au/adafruit-16-channel-12-bit-pwm-servo-driver-i2c-interface-pca9685.html.md)) 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 maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise... ## Pricing - **Price:** $26.80 (inc GST) — $24.36 AUD, exc GST - **Quantity discounts:** 10+ $23.64 (exc GST) · 50+ $23.15 (exc GST) ## Availability & dispatch - Out of stock — the product page offers email notification when it returns. ## How to buy - **Build a cart:** compose `https://core-electronics.com.au/cart/link?items=ADA815:1` (comma-separated SKU:qty pairs) and share the link. Opening it shows a confirmation page with live pricing and stock before anything is added to the cart. - **Verify the cart first:** fetch `https://core-electronics.com.au/cart/link/ADA815:1.md` for live line prices (inc & exc GST, quantity discounts applied), stock and dispatch estimates, and totals. Append `/to/{AU-postcode}` (or `/to/{country-code}:{postcode}`) before `.md` for delivery options and prices to that destination. Unknown, retired, or out-of-stock SKUs are flagged. (Query form `cart/link.md?items=...` also works but some robots parsers refuse query strings here.) - **Checkout** is completed on-site and includes a captcha at the payment step. Share the cart link; checkout takes it from there. - **Search the catalogue:** `https://core-electronics.com.au/search/{query}.md` (URL-encode the query; pages 2-3 at `search/{query}/{page}.md`; `search.md?q=` also works) - **Payment methods, purchase orders, policies and contact details:** https://core-electronics.com.au/llms.txt ## Description 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 maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realise that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. When Adafruit saw this chip, Adafruit 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 Adafruit would really like to see since it would be glorious) - It's an i2c-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, its 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 i2c 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 enables pin to quickly disable all the outputs Adafruit wrapped up this lovely chip into a breakout board with a couple of 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 *slightly* wider 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 This product comes with a fully tested and assembled breakout as well as 4 pieces of 3x4 male straight header (for servo/LED plugs), a 2-pin terminal block (for power) and a 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. [If you want to use right-angle 3x4 headers, We also carry a 4 pack in the shop.](https://core-electronics.com.au/3x4-right-angle-male-header-4-pack.html) Check out Adafruit's tutorial with Arduino and [you can get Adafruit's documented Arduino library which has both PWM and Servo examples from github!](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-PWM-Servo-Driver-Library) ## Technical Details **Specifications:** - 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 3x4 headers & terminal block): 9grams - This board/chip uses I2C 7-bit address between 0x40-0x7F, selectable with jumpers [Datasheets, EagleCAD PCB files, Fritzing objects and more in the tutorial!](https://learn.adafruit.com/16-channel-pwm-servo-driver/downloads) Revision History: - As of Feb 16, 2015, Adafruit now use a much beefier polarity-protection transistor. Functionality is otherwise the same ![](https://core-electronics.com.au/attachments/localcontent/rohs_icon_8216055e11.jpg) ## Images - [Product image 1](https://core-electronics.com.au/media/catalog/product/8/1/815-04.jpg)