Power DAC Shield

Name: Power DAC Shield
SKU: 1451
Price: 29.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.08 (4 reviews)

(4 Reviews)

The Power DAC Shield is a bi-phasic, digital-to-analog converter shield for Arduino boards.

Designed by Visgence, Inc. in United States of America

2015-05-05T21:44:13.345Z-rev_4.5_front_lg.jpg

2016-08-23T23:31:02.204Z-DACBoard_Top_On.jpg

2016-01-28T18:14:37.206Z-power_dac_shield-01.png

2016-02-01T17:00:45.077Z-power_dac_shield_connection_diagram-01.png

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The Power DAC Shield is a bi-phasic, digital-to-analog converter shield for Arduino boards.

Now Shipping Rev 5 New Power DAC Module for 3.3V systems available now! Overview The Power DAC Shield is a digital-to-analog converter shield for Arduino boards. It has 12 bit resolution and can ge…

Overview

The Power DAC Shield is a digital-to-analog converter shield for Arduino boards. It has 12 bit resolution and can generate true AC waveforms when using a bipolar power supply (positive and negative voltage).

The "Power" in the name comes from the fact that the shield can be used to drive up to 250mA at +-15V (3.75W). That's enough to drive small DC motors and home audio speakers! A re-settable PTC fuse protects the output in case things get carried away ^_~

While the Arduino's analog outputs generate PWM signals, the Power DAC Shield provides a true analog voltage. That means that you can use it in many applications, such as motor drives and audio, where PWM would not work.

The Power DAC Shield uses SPI to communicate with the Arduino, allowing up to 4 to be stacked while leaving most of the Arduino's IO free for use by other shields or for connecting to other parts of your project. With Rev 4.5, we've added pluggable headers to make stacking even easier!

Details

DAC IC: MCP4921
Input V+
- Max: 15V
- Min: 5V
Input V-
- Max: -15V
- Min: -5V
Output Vpp
- Max: 30V
- Min: 0V
Output current protection
- Trip - 0.250 A
- Hold - 0.100 A
Output frequency
- 220kHz
Logic is compatible with 5V Arduino boards like the Uno and Mega. The shield will not work with 3.3V boards like the Arduino Due. The Power DAC Module works with 3.3V boards like the Due.
Output voltage is sourced from an external supply (see connection diagram and V+ and V- specs above)

Use Cases

Audio output
Driving small DC motors
Driving big DC motors with an external power amp
Drawing Lissajous figures and other shapes on oscilloscopes
Anything requiring precise, true analog voltage output

Docs and Examples

Product Wiki

Drawing Lissajous Curves

Using the DAC shield with the Arduino Mega

Source Files available on GitHub

Schematic

Rev 5 Changes

"2022" silkscreen
blue trimpot
batch 202303 cannot ship to Europe - not ROHs compliant

Rev 4.6 Changes

"2016" silkscreen
Positive power LED is now red
Negative power LED is now green
5V power LED is now blue
2.21k resistors used for all LEDs
Output fuse is different model than rev 4.5, but overall specs are the same.

Rev 4.5

"2014" silkscreen
all LEDS are blue

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Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.67)

Documentation: (2.67)

Shipping: (4.67)

Communication: (4.33)

Christian | July 4, 2024

Works as expected and wasn't too hard to figure out

I used this with an Arduino Uno R4 Wifi. Since that uses the Renesas chip, I used the digitalWrite method (and not the port mapping method that's recommended with the older Atmel chips), and that worked just fine for my use case. I'm not aware of *any* board out there for any maker-friendly system that can drive a bipolar output at that voltage without a fair amount of finicky EE work. Driving the input of this one with two center-tapped 9V batteries in series (as one of their suggested ways) worked and was easy enough. I'm using a single board at this time but looking to get a second one. It's nice that they thought about how to stack multiple power DAC boards on top of each using the chip-select output if you want multiple independent outputs.

Tip: unless you enjoy soldering (I don't), get the variant with the headers already soldered on.

Josh | July 9, 2021

Very useful board, fills a gap with few other options.

I needed a 0-10V variable power supply capable of driving 100mA and there are very few other options besides expensive and hard to get lab equipment or rolling your own. These boards fit the bill and saved me a lot of time and expense.

I needed a total of 8 outputs, so ended up adding bodge wires for the extra chip select pins on the top 3 boards.

I also hacked one up for single ended operation. This gives me full 12-bits resolution across a 0-12V range. Instructions are here if anyone else needs this...

https://github.com/bigjosh/Voyant-power-DAC-array#dac-shield-modifications

Sure the code and documentation for this board could be better, but not too hard to figure out.

I just put in an order for my 2nd batch.

Ross | Aug. 13, 2014

Seems like it works ok - Documentation is awful

With this board you get
1. the board
2. demo code (undocumented)
3. a schematic

It's not a complicated board. But to understand how it works I have to spend time trying to read somebody's undocumented code and then go to the schematic so that I can download the DAC data sheet so I can understand how that works. Why can't somebody from this company just spend an afternoon and write up some basic documentation?

Update-Will look forwards to the additional documentation. Product works as advertised and is very nicely executed.

Response from Visgence, Inc. | Aug. 13, 2014

Hi Ross,

The Arduino Mega example is a little cleaner than the Uno example, but we'll get to work on them both up so they're easier to follow. We've also added a link to the MCP4921 (DAC IC) datasheet on the main product description page.

Thanks for the feedback, we're always looking to improve!

Michael | June 17, 2014

Looking for a nice and easy DAC solution

I had originally bought the Arduino Due, in hopes that I could use the output voltage as a control for motor driver circuit. Not in any easy to find documentation, the Due can only go down to 0.5V and only up to 2.7V. This did not meet the requirements I needed for the motor control. I looked online for a cheap solution that was compatable with the arduino code I had already written.

Unfourtunatly, this device does not have a working code example for the Due. The Due uses different interrupts. Once I acquired an Uno, the code worked flawlessly. Thank you for having such an easy to use product. Please look into adding support for the Due. The added speed and memory allows for more robust programs.

Response from Visgence, Inc. | July 23, 2014

Glad you found the shield easy to use with the Uno. We have recently released a code example for the Arduino Mega, as well. Unfortunately, the shield was designed to run at 5V, but we will look into 3.3V compatibility for a future revision so that it can be used with the Due.

Thanks for the feedback!

-Visgence, Inc.