How to connect arduino with ardumoto, i have heating problem with the ardumoto h-bridge chip, it heated up after running for a minute..I wonder is that normal? Is there some kind of overheating protection for the ardumoto? Besides I separated the vin for the ardumoto from arduino and source it with another 4 x AA battery by cutting of the vin leg that suppose to connect to arduino, i wonder is it because of that cause the heat problem.......??
What motor are you using? What are its specs? What voltage are you driving the motor with (6vdc)? Are the specs near the max specs for the L298 used in the ardumoto?
I suspect that you might need a heatsink on the chip, but I would like to know the specs of the motor (and the voltage you are using - 6vdc?) before I say for certain...
BTW - I doubt your mod is the problem (if I am understanding you right, you basically separated the two supplies, correct?); are you only using a single 6V battery pack?
Ok - a couple of things:
- Which version of the ardumoto are you using:
or
- Looking at the schematic for both; it seems like you shouldn't have disconnected the VIN pin; instead, you should be applying a slightly higher voltage than your motor needs, and it would power both the Arduino and the shield.
Hmm - another thing; if your motor is 6V, the L298 itself runs off of 5V - I am not sure if running so close to the "lower bounds" is an issue; plus your power supply to the shield isn't regulated - I am not sure how this would effect things.
There's a lot of unknowns here; maybe somebody else can weigh in on this...
The L298 is a bipolar driver and loses about 3V-4V from input voltage to motor voltage, so at any appreciable current it is going to get hot (P=VI power loss). That's undesirable, but normal for this chip. It does have internal thermal shutdown protection so it will turn itself off once it gets too hot.
What is the expected motor current? Can you measure the voltage at the output of the L298 to see how much voltage actually reaches the motors?
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The Quick Shield: breakout all 28 pins to quick-connect terminals
Yes i'm using separate battery source, 1 piece 9v battery connected to the jack for arduino n the 6v battery connected to the vin and ground of ardumoto....the motor i drive is just 2 x tamiya motor only... anyway im doing a self balancing robot. I got heatsink on it but still very hot after running for minute....