Datasheet

Powering Motors

Motors need a lot of energy, especially cheap motors since they're less efficient.

Voltage requirements:

The first important thing to figure out what voltage the motor is going to use. If you're lucky your motor came with some

sort of specifications. Some small hobby motors are only intended to run at 1.5V, but its just as common to have 6-12V

motors. The motor controllers on this shield are designed to run from 5V to 12V.

MOST 1.5-3V MOTORS WILL NOT WORK

Current requirements:

The second thing to figure out is how much current your motor will need. The motor driver chips that come with the kit

are designed to provide up to 1.2 A per motor, with 3A peak current. Note that once you head towards 2A you'll

probably want to put a heat-sink on the motor driver, otherwise you will get thermal failure, possibly burning out the

chip.

You can't run motors off of a 9V battery so don't waste your time/batteries!

Use a big Lead Acid or NiMH battery pack. Its also very much suggested that you set up two power supplies (split

supply) one for the Arduino and one for the motors. 99% of 'weird motor problems' are due to noise on the power line

from sharing power supplies and/or not having a powerful enough supply! Even small DC motors can draw up to 3

Amps when they stall.

Setting up your shield for powering Hobby Servos

Servos are powered off of the same regulated 5V that the Arduino uses. This is OK for the small hobby servos

suggested. Basically, power up your Arduino with the USB port or DC barrel jack and you're good to go. If you want

something beefier, cut the trace going to the optional servo power terminal and wire up your own 5-6V supply!

Setting up your shield for powering DC Motors

The DC motors are powered off of a 'high voltage supply' and NOT the regulated 5V. Don't connect the motor power

supply to the Arduino's 5V power pin. This is a very very very bad idea unless you are sure you know what you're

doing! You could damage your Arduino and/or USB port!

There are two places you can get your motor 'high voltage supply' from.

1. One is the DC barrel jack on the Arduino board

2. The other is the 2-terminal block on the shield that is labeled DC Motor Power 5-12VDC.

The DC Jack on the Arduino has a protection diode so you won't be able to mess things up too bad if you plug in the

wrong kind of power. The terminal block has a protection FET so you will not damage the arduino/shield if you wire up

your battery supply backwards, but it wont work either!

Here's how it works: