Motors on an Arduino Uno Issue

Hello all,

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.

http://www.pitsco.com/motors/TETRIX_DC_Gear_Motor
Thanks,
-Spoticus

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.