Power_Broker:
Eh, not sure what those extra 35mA are burning, but needless to say, absolute maximums are set for a reason.As to your question: Motor controllers (or H-Bridge drivers) are used for direction and speed control of DC motors. With a motor controller, you can choose to operate the motor to go forwards, or backwards while also controlling the speed (with PWM signals). They also allow you to drive the motors off an external power supply like you mentioned.
Without a motor controller, you can only run a dc motor in one direction.
I hope that was a good enough explanation.
Right but my question is why do you NEED a controller (or H-Bridge driver), not what extraneous features you can gain from using one
UnoWatt:
I expected that to be a short video of your motor running so we could see the connections. Not sure why that video was necessary.
I find it humorous, thought others might as well. Not sure why this comment was necessary.