Using two motor drivers with the same pins

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all,
Im planning to create a RC tank using 2 motor drivers and 4 motors (motor drivers have 2 outputs). I am thinking i can wire it it such a way to be that each motor driver would control the front and back the same way. To save space on my pin board, can i connect the motor drivers in series or parallel to only the voltage from the amount of pins needed for one motor driver and still run both?

Thanks

2

Not entirely sure what you are asking but at a minimum, you will need 2 pins per driver (so 4 pins in total for 2 drivers). What board are you using where you need to "save space"?

Can you draw us a schematic of what you want to do?

3

Im at work at the moment and doing this on breaks so cant make a full schematic right now, sorry for the long time for a reply too. Im using a transceiver (nRF24L01) with this project and from a tutorial from "how to mechatronics" says to use 6 pins (not including power or ground) https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/arduino-wireless-communication-nrf24l01-tutorial/
The motor drivers in using are 2x7A Dc Motor drivers from DFRobot and their product wiki says to use 6 pins as well (not including power and ground).
7A_Dual_DC_Motor_Driver_SKU__DRI0041-DFRobot
Im using the Arduino Uno Rev 3 (14 digital pins with 6 PWM)
Using the these following what those say makes 18 pins. Meaning more than the Rev 3 has and that not including using pins for other components.
My real question is, could i connect the same digital pins outputs to the same input on the two different motor drivers if i want them to do the same thing meaning only using 6 outputs instead of 12?
Or are these numbers from the tutorials and wiki overkill and i can use less.
I can make a full schematic later on in the day if i havent given enough info or hasnt answered your question.

4

Assuming one driver controls one side, you can run them in parallel. IN1 and IN2 are the forwards/Backwards and ENA/ENB are just enable line, which you can make always high.

2 wires for power, 2 wires for direction per driver.
The power wires will be going to both drivers so all you need to worry about are the 4 direction pins.

5

Thanks alot for this!