L298 L298N Dual DC Motor Driver

This L298N Based Motor Driver Module is a high power motor driver perfect for driving DC Motors and Stepper Motors. It uses the popular L298 motor driver IC and has the onboard 5V regulator, which it can supply to an external circuit. It can control up to 4 DC motors or 2 DC motors with directional and speed control. This motor driver is perfect for robotics and mechatronics projects and perfect for controlling motors from microcontrollers, switches, relays, etc. Ideal for driving DC and Stepper motors for micro mouse, line-following robots, robot arms, etc. An H-Bridge is a circuit that drives a current in either polarity. We control it by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Pulse Width Modulation is a means of controlling the duration of an electronic pulse.

In motors, try to imagine the brush as a water wheel and electrons as the liquid droplets of water. The voltage would be the water flowing over the wheel at a constant rate; the more water flowing, the higher the energy. Motors are rated at certain voltages and can be damaged if the voltage is applied too heavily or dropped quickly to slow the motor down. Thus PWM. Take the water wheel analogy and think of the water hitting it in pulses but at a constant flow. The longer the pulses the faster the wheel will turn; the shorter the pulses, the slower the water wheel will turn. Motors will last much longer and be more reliable if controlled through PWM.

Pins of L298 L298N Motor Driver:

1. Pin1: Motor A lead out
2. Pin2: Motor A lead out
3. Pin3: Motor B lead out
4. Out 4: Mo (Can be from 5v-35v, just marked as 12v)
5. GND: Ground
6. 5v: 5v input (unnecessary if your power source is 7v-35v, if the power source is 7v-35v then it can act as a 5v out)
7. EnA: Enables PWM signal for Motor A (Please see the “Arduino Sketch Considerations” section)
8. In1: Enable Motor A
9. In2: Enable Motor A
10. In3: Enable Motor B
11. In4: Enable Motor B
12. EnB: Enables PWM signal for Motor B (Please see the “Arduino Sketch Considerations” section)

Usage:

H-bridges are typically used in controlling motors’ speed and direction but can be used for other projects such as driving the brightness of individual lighting projects such as high powered LED arrays.

Two things to mention:

• Make sure you have all of your grounds tied together; Arduino, Power source, and the Motor Controller.
• The PWM Pins are unnecessary if you do not want to control PWM features.

Arduino Sketch Considerations:

The Arduino code sketch is pretty straightforward. Since there isn’t a library for the L298N Dual H-Bridge Motor Controller, you have to declare which pins the controller is hooked to.

The “int dir(number)Pin(letter)”‘ pins can be connected to any available digital pin you have available, as long as you declare the correct fastener in your sketch. This makes the L298N Dual H-Bridge Motor Controller very versatile if your project is using a lot of Arduino pins.

The int“speeding(letter)” pins need to be connected to a PWM pin on the Arduino if you want to enable speed control through PWM.

As a quick cheat I have included a list of PWM pins for the main two types of Arduino’s I use:

• AT MEGA – PWM: 2 to 13 and 44 to 46. Provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite() function.
• UNO – PWM: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. Provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite() function.

NOTE: BUILT-IN 5V POWER SUPPLY, WHEN THE DRIVING VOLTAGE IS 7V-35V

Features:

1. Current Sense for each motor
2. Heatsink for better performance
3. Power-On LED indicator

Package Includes:

1 x L298N Based Motor Driver Module