Connect a wireless control to L293D motor shield

Using Arduino Microcontrollers
1

Hi all,
I am a complete novice to Arduino and am looking for some advice. My team and I are trying to hook up 2 TT motors and 2 servos to be controlled remotely through an Arduino. We have purchased an L293D motor shield, and using very basic upload by the USB port from the Arduino IDE I have been able to make all 4 motors move appropriately. Our next issue is making this possible remotely and dynamically - for example, we press "W" and both TT motors go forward, we release "W" and they stop going forward. Arrow keys to control 5 degree angle increments of the servos etc.

Our first idea is the following, using a keyboard:

Our plan is to put a dongle to a wireless keyboard in this attachment, and transmit these instructions to control certain movements.

I would like some advice on how to attach pins - it seems like the L293D shield takes up all the pins, so the above tutorial may be incompatible with this shield. Will it still work? Or are their other better ways to remote control it? I'm not too concerned about anything fancy, just wireless and compatible with the above controls.

Thank you very much for your help!

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The shield does NOT use all the pins only those required.
If it is an official shield then the pins used are in the schematic in the shop.

It it is an unofficial shield then you need to check with the supplier as there are so many of these shields and not all of them are the same.

3

How should we use the other pins? I think this one is from MH Electronics, it seems their are some unused but there are no open slots etc. Could we solder our wires directly onto the top of the pins?

4

Yes you could solder directly to the unused pins.
Please try to link to the shield you have as it makes people's life easier to help you.

5

You can do a search for Uno screw shield. Is easier (and less permanent) than soldering.

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My shield is as follows

I am struggling to find documentation on this exact one as I believe it is not a genuine Adafruit etc. shield. Is there a way to remove some pins so I can access them separately? Any form of wireless communication would be good - I have connected my Arduino to my PC using a usb cord and can run dynamic commands by interpreting input in the serial monitor, but am looking for something slightly more reactive (i.e. move forward while W is held down, not move forward one second when the letter W is received) and also wireless.

Could options such as the Blynk app and an ESP8266 be possible with this shield?

Thanks for your help.

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Any markings on the board that can indicate a brand or model?

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"MH Electronics" is inscribed on one side however I tried to research this company and didn't come up with much. Guessing its a cheap Chinese manufacturer.

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Maybe What are the unused pins in an Arduino L293D motor shield? - Arduino Stack Exchange will help; can't vow for the correctness of it.

Was the result of a search with google for MH Electronics L293D where I found a image of a board that looked like yours; you can dig a little further in other threads.

A multimeter can also help to identify connections.

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They should also offer an EXAMPLE sketch and the pins used may be listed in that.
From that information you should be able to deduce which pins are still free.

Clearly RX and TX are still available but that would require you to only connect a wifi device AFTER your code was uploaded and disconnect again before any new code is uploaded.

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