I am fairly new to all of this but I working with an Arduino Uno, and attempting to make an R/C robot with it. The way I plan on driving the robot is through the use of Tetrix Motors found in the link below.
My issue is that I am not sure if my Arduino Uno can handle these motors, and to be quite honest I am not sure how would I test my equipment to find out, or where I may find this information. If anyone has any tips I would be extremely grateful.
Side note I do know that I have used motor controllers in the past with Tetrix parts but I am still not quite sure as to why the motor controllers are there. Attempting further research now but would love some help.
The microcontroller on the Arduino Uno board runs at 5V, and can output 20mA for a pin (for example for a led).
That motor is 12V and maximum 1.37A max, according to the datasheet. However the stall current is not mentioned in the datasheet. Perhaps it can be 4A (something between 2 and 20A I'm guessing).
So you need a board or a module that translates the signals from the Arduino Uno to power the motor. That is called a 'motor driver'. When you need to motor to be able to turn in both directions, you need an H-bridge.
It could be something like this : Motor Driver 15A IRF7862PBF - ROB-09107 - SparkFun Electronics
Okay I have been doing research on the parts you had mentioned now. As for a motor driver were you referring to a motor shield? I am unaware if these are the same type of equipment. If not it looks like if I have 4 motors I would need 4 motor drivers so I could have the motors run a basic tank drive controller.
The purpose of a driver (loose, module or shield) is to allow you supply higher voltage and current than the Arduino can supply, to the motor from a suitable source. The Arduino then controls that voltage, but is not part of the supply.
Motor drivers are not necessarily shields: a shield is a board that piggy-backs on top of the Arduino, having pins that plug straight into the Arduino holes. It's a convenient way of hooking a driver up: alternatively you can just use the driver chip "loose" and (say) hook it up via a breadboard. For example, many shields use the L298 chip, and provide you with screw terminals for the motor. If you used a loose 298 on a breadboard, you would have to take care of all the connections yourself.
Many (if not all?- don't quote me) driver chips handle 2 or more DC motors each.
Pololu have a good range of modules. A module is sort of half-way between a loose chip and a shield. The chip is on a small board, perhaps with pins or holes for pins, and where applicable a few components external to the chip. You'll also see that they have small shields which plug on don't cover the whole Arduino.
PS (edit)... I'm not for a moment suggesting a 298 since that's old technology. Especially, you wouldn't use a loose one in its Multiwatt package format, since the pin alignment is not breadboard friendly.