Motor Driver R3 Shield

Using Arduino General Electronics
1

Hello

I bought this Motor Driver and have several questions on it.

  1. It seems like, I need to attach this board to my arduino. However, is it possible if I don't?

  2. If I attach it together, do I need to supply power to both boards?(Arduino and shield)

3)If it need to be attached, I would like to control four DC motors, so I need 2 of this board. Since I have attached the first board into the arduino, do I just need to attached the second board above the first board?(So three boards attached together).

Thank you so much and I just join arduino. Please Guide me if I do mistakes

2

Looks like a clone of the Arduino Motor Shield. You can find the schematic for the 'real' one here.

You do not need to stack them on top of the Arduino; obviously you need to wire them to the Arduino. You can not stack two motorshields unless you want the motors to do the same thing.

For each board you need 2x PWM, 2x direction and 2x brake (so 6 pins total per board); you might also want to connect the sense outputs to individual pins (or leave them unconnected) Further each board requires GND and 5V that can be shared with the Arduino.

Power the motors from a different power supply.

Make a drawing (even a photo/scan of a paper and pencil one will do) and post it here.

3

Thank you for your reply!

Here is my schematic diagram. I didn't include motor in this diagram

Sorry for bad drawing and unorganized Pin, I put Shield 1 to the PIN that was stated by the board. And shield 2 at random pin that left.

I realised that :

I have used up all of my pins. However, I still need required more pins for another connections such as sensors etc. Are there any ways to solve this?

4

If you wanted to stack multiple shields it would have been better to go for one's designed to
be stacked: Adafruit Motor/Stepper/Servo Shield for Arduino v2 Kit [v2.3] : ID 1438 : $19.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

Take the comment about driving steppers with a pinch of salt though - these days most steppers
are low impedance bipolar motors which cannot be driven from a dual H-bridge, since they
need current control, not voltage control (see DRV8825, A4988 for examples of stepper drivers).

5

HellenT:
I realised that :

I have used up all of my pins. However, I still need required more pins for another connections such as sensors etc. Are there any ways to solve this?

Use I2C / SPI port expanders is an option; e.g. 23017 / 23S17. At the cost of only a few pins you get 16 (up to 128) general purpose I/O pins back.

The PCF8574 is the smaller version (8 bits).

So instead of 3 pins per motor, it will only be the PWM pin; break and direction can be controlled from the port expander.

Alternative can be the 74HC595 serial in / parallel put shift register and the 74HC165 parallel in / serial out shift register. Similar effect as with the port expanders. And for higher current requirements there is the TPIC6B595 (150mA sink capacity).

6

The PCF8574 is the smaller version (8 bits).

No this is a very different chip and works in a different way.

7

Grumpy_Mike:
No this is a very different chip and works in a different way.

I suspect it works different. It's still a port expander though :wink:

8

Akh_f:
Guys

I just read up the motor specification from the seller that I bought from.

The motor driver has peak current of 2A and the one that MartT mentioned has 3A peak current. I don't see any motor driver with 4.5A(stated from the specification). Even L298N (I don't want to use this because other people say about heatsink which I dont understand but I think it's bad) and L293D can't provide current more than 3A.

Akh_f: who are you? Are you hijacking a thread? If so, please start your own thread.

Heatsink is not a problem. It's just a piece of metal to keep the IC cool. See e.g. the image at SME DUAL MOTOR DRIVER-L298

9

Akh_f:
Sorry, I was confuse to open a new topic or not since Arduino ask us to browse for previous topic before creating a new one and I thought this topic has almost similarities with the question that I am wondering...

OK; the intention is to search and find an answer. If you don't find the answer, you open a new thread.

'Hijacking' a thread has the disadvantage that it becomes a mess; somewhere along the line it will be very unclear who replied to who. Also, how would you feel if you started a thread, somebody 'hijacks' it and all replies are about the post of the hijacker and not yours. And everytime you check the replies, you find that it was not a reply to your question. I'm sure that I would not like that.

Just start a new thread in this case as you did not yet find an answer to your question.

10

Thank you so much guys!

I've bought the shield that is suggested by MarkT, however, I have another questions:

  1. if I attached the shield to the Arduino, However, they put female pin header on the shield similar to the Arduino. Does that mean I can use every pin on that shield?

Isn't it supposed to be there are pin that I can't used since it is reserved for the motors that is connected to that shield?

  1. Why there is many holes on the shield?At the right corner of the holes, there are small rectangular box which has mark #15,#14,#1 and #0 PWM. Are they extra pin?

  2. If i want to use external supply to the Arduino, can I just connected the external supply to the 5V pin of the arduino?or Vin pin of the Arduino>

It's hard to explain, but I hope you guys understand what I mean.

11

Does that mean I can use every pin on that shield?

Yes. It says on that page:-

Only two pins (SDA & SCL) are required to drive the multiple motors, and since it's I2C you can also connect any other I2C devices or shields to the same pins.

Why there is many holes on the shield?

It is for adding your own circuits, it is known as a prototype area.

At the right corner of the holes, there are small rectangular box which has mark #15,#14,#1 and #0 PWM. Are they extra pin?

In effect yes they are extra pins from the controller chip.

If i want to use external supply to the Arduino, can I just connected the external supply to the 5V pin of the arduino?or Vin pin of the Arduino>

If it is 5V then yes connect it to the 5V. If it is between 6.5V and 12V then connect it to the Vin.

Have you read the AdaFruit on line information on this board?