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I am working on a mobile robotics personal project with a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. The 4.5 VDC motor controllers on the rover has a no load current of 190 mA and a max load current of 250 mA. (I am using this rover here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UAXEHCO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

The voltage output of a gpio pin on the raspberry pi is 3.3 V, which with my power supply is enough to get the motors running (not at full speed of course), but the current output of the gpio pin isn't nearly enough to get the motors on the rover to run. Would I need some sort of boost voltage regulator?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ you need current amplification, not voltage. a simple transistor or mosfet should do. just search "arduino transistor motor schematic". the same circuit would work for RPi \$\endgroup\$
    – Tirdad Sadri Nejad
    Dec 6, 2020 at 22:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ Typically you want an FET (not Darlington!) H Bridge for this. But you probably also want a distinct power supply from you pi to protect it from brownout, unless you use a substantially higher voltage pack with a switching regulator for the pi. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Dec 6, 2020 at 23:04

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You can't directly use the 3.3V GPIO for anything that requires a lot of power.

However, you can use it as a control signal for a component that can switch a lot of power to the motors. Like a transistor.

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