r/arduino • u/Grand-Ad7769 • 7d ago

Need Help on Multiplexed Circuit

I'm building a circuit to drive an 8×8 grid of 64 solenoids, where each solenoid needs to be individually controllable in both polarities (forward current, reverse current, or off).

My current plan is to use a multiplexed H-bridge matrix — 8 H-bridges driving the rows and 8 driving the columns — controlled by an Arduino. I'm planning to use 8 L293D ICs (each has 2 H-bridges, so 8 chips gives me the 16 I need).

My questions are:

  1. Will this approach work as intended?
  2. Are there any issues with using the L293D for this?
  3. Is there a better way to do this overall?
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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche 7d ago

that should work. you will be dealing with the same currents and possible issues that come with other high current inductive actuators like the coils in motors. Pretty much the same thing. Depending on what the current use is at the voltage you need to drive them the L293 may or may not be enough. I would probably take the same or similar path *if* I already had a lot of L293's in my parts bin.

If you haven't bought the drivers yet you might consider using DRV8833's. I'm really starting to like them since they 1) Use power MOSFET's instead of BJT's, and 2) They operate off of a single power source!

https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/drv8833.pdf

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u/Grand-Ad7769 7d ago

Thanks for the recommendation! These solenoid don't draw a lot (10-100 mA depending on the voltage). Do you think the L293 will still work for this?

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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche 7d ago

yeah they can handle that easily