So I bought an arduino uno and a motor shield the other day for a class project. I have tried looking all over the place to find out some better information on how to setup two motors with the motor shield. Now from what I can tell pins 12 and 9 are for motor A and 13 and 10 are for motor B.
Does this mean that the rest of the pins, 1-8 and 11 are open for other outputs/inputs for sensors, servos, and other motors?
The idea is to use the two DC motors the shield can handle for the two drive motors of the robot. There may have to be two extra motors needed for other functions that would have to be hooked up. The component list looks like it will be something like:
2 DC drive motors
2 DC medium motors
1 servo
1 light sensor
1 distance sensor
Will I have enough room and which pins are open after using the two hook ups for DC motors.
mwebby93:
Does this mean that the rest of the pins, 1-8 and 11 are open for other outputs/inputs for sensors, servos, and other motors?
Will I have enough room and which pins are open after using the two hook ups for DC motors.
Yes.
Yes and every pin that is not connected to something is free for you to use it for whatever purpose you want (inside the specifications of said pin).
mwebby93:
Will I have enough room and which pins are open after using the two hook ups for DC motors.
You'll only be able to run 2 of your DC motors using that shield, but if you want to run 4 DC motors (as you've listed) you may may check out the shield in the link below. Although, the shield you're using can handle more current than the one I've recommended and makes it a lot easier to use the avaialbe pins the arduino has due to the pass through style headers . Do you have a datasheet for the DC motors you're using? The shields are rated at certain voltages & currents that they are capable of handling. The one in the link below is capable of controlling 4 DC motors at 0.6A per bridge. The shield/driver you use really just depends on what your DC motors are rated as.
mwebby93:
Will I have enough room and which pins are open after using the two hook ups for DC motors.
You'll only be able to run 2 of your DC motors using that shield, but if you want to run 4 DC motors (as you've listed) you may may check out the shield in the link below. Although, the shield you're using can handle more current than the one I've recommended and makes it a lot easier to use the avaialbe pins the arduino has due to the pass through style headers . Do you have a datasheet for the DC motors you're using? The shields are rated at certain voltages & currents that they are capable of handling. The one in the link below is capable of controlling 4 DC motors at 0.6A per bridge. The shield/driver you use really just depends on what your DC motors are rated as.
I knew the board I have is capable of running just two DC motors, but I thought that I would be able to hook up more motors as long as I build an H-bridge circuit separately?
Shpaget: Alright, thats what I was thinking but some example codes I looked up showed the two motors taking up 6 pins, each motor had a brake, forward/backward control, and speed control. Is there anyway around this?
I knew the board I have is capable of running just two DC motors, but I thought that I would be able to hook up more motors as long as I build an H-bridge circuit separately?
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Oh, I'm sorry. I miss understood your question. Using external H-Bridge should work just fine. I'm actually dealing with that in a project I'm working on, except I have to build 5 ... But yes you could hook up external H-bridge circuits to pins 1-8 and 11 to drive other motors. If you want to save yourself some time from having to build the H-Bridge circuit, you could just use the free pins mentioned earlier to connect to another motor driver (One that's not a shield or that doesn't stack so you can choose which pins to connect it to). It may be a little more expensive to buy a pre-built motor driver circuit vs building an H-bridge circuit, but it'll save ya a little time. I hope this helped.
Jeffro:
Oh, I'm sorry. I miss understood your question. Using external H-Bridge should work just fine. I'm actually dealing with that in a project I'm working on, except I have to build 5 ... But yes you could hook up external H-bridge circuits to pins 1-8 and 11 to drive other motors. If you want to save yourself some time from having to build the H-Bridge circuit, you could just use the free pins mentioned earlier to connect to another motor driver (One that's not a shield or that doesn't stack so you can choose which pins to connect it to). It may be a little more expensive to buy a pre-built motor driver circuit vs building an H-bridge circuit, but it'll save ya a little time. I hope this helped.
-Jeff
Thank you for the reply. I will look into buy a circuit instead of building one since smaller is better lol.
... But yes you could hook up external H-bridge circuits to pins 1-8 and 11 to drive other motors. If you want to save yourself some time from having to build the H-Bridge circuit, you could just use the free pins mentioned earlier to connect to another motor driver (One that's not a shield or that doesn't stack so you can choose which pins to connect it to). It may be a little more expensive to buy a pre-built motor driver circuit vs building an H-bridge circuit, but it'll save ya a little time. I hope this helped.