Project 10 - What is the benefit of using an H-Bridge?

Hardware The Arduino Starter Kit
1

Hi!

First off, thank you for your help! I'm new to Arduino and working my way through the Starter Kit. My goal is to eventually make a solar powered robot.

Project 10 utilizes the L293D H-Bridge to send signals to the DC motor. However, it takes up 3 GPIO pins on the arduino. Conversely, project 9 doesn't use an HBridge and requires only one GPIO pin. Even if I were to drive two motors on my robot without an H-Bridge, I would have one pin available for other cool stuff (blinky LED's - mandatory in every cool robot).

My question is: What is the benefit of using an H-Bridge?

As a follow up question: I've noticed some people using continuous servos to maneuver their robots. Under what circumstances would I use a continuous servo instead of a motor?

Thanks!

2

In the description in the beginning of the chapter, it says H bridges can switch polarity. You need this for this project since you make the motor switch spinning directions.

3

arduino uno has at least 11 digital pins if you run out of pins you need to graduate to the Arduino Mega 2560