Arduino motor Shield R3 getting (too) hot

Hi there,

Have you ever felt a/o measured the temperature of the chip on the Arduino Motor shield R3? (An old shield, we know)

How hot can it become.before it fails? We went to 120 C and unplugged the shield from the power supply. Are we too anxious? We use 9V power supply.

The attached motor turns well.

greetings,

Tom

Most motor drivers tend to run hot.
A lot depends on the current drawn.
Maybe you are pulling a lot of torque that may be close to the drivers limits ?

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Thanks to all those who helped and added to this list.

HetLabRotterdam:
Hi there,

Have you ever felt a/o measured the temperature of the chip on the Arduino Motor shield R3? (An old shield, we know)

How hot can it become.before it fails? We went to 120 C and unplugged the shield from the power supply. Are we too anxious? We use 9V power supply.

The attached motor turns well.

greetings,

Tom

What motor? What current are you drawing?

Not sure why Arduino used an inefficient L298 dinosaur without heatsink on that motor shield.
Don't expect it to do much better than a 2*L293D motor shield.
Leo..

Any chip running at 120C will have a much reduced lifetime(*). 60C is a good max target to aim for - more than
that and the heatsinking should be improved or another device chosen.

(*) If the package is at that temp, the die will be much hotter.