L298N Motor Driver Module with PWM Control

L298N Specifications: 

• Driver chip: L298 dual H-bridge driver chip.
• Operates up to 35V DC.
• Drive part of the peak current Io: 2A / Bridge.
• The logical part of the terminal power supply range Vss:4.5V-5.5V
• The logical part of the operating current range: 0 ~ 36mA.
• Maximum power consumption: 20W.

L298N Features:

• Current Sense for each motor.
• Heatsink for better performance.
• Power-On LED indicator.
• Drives up to 4 motors.

Pins:-

• Out 1: Motor A lead out
• Out 2: Motor A lead out
• Out 3: Motor B lead out
• Out 4: Mo (Can be from 5v-35v, just marked as 12v)
• GND: Ground
• 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)
• EnA: Enables PWM signal for Motor A (Please see the “Arduino Sketch Considerations” section)
• In1: Enable Motor A
• In2: Enable Motor A
• In3: Enable Motor B
• In4: Enable Motor B
• EnB: Enables PWM signal for Motor B

Usage:

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

NOTE:

• 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.

Controlling a DC Motor:

In order to have complete control over the DC motor, we have to control its speed and rotation direction. This can be achieved by combining these two techniques.

• PWM – For controlling speed
• H-Bridge – For controlling rotation direction

PWM – For controlling speed: The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by varying its input voltage. A common technique for doing this is to use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). PWM is a technique where the average value of the input voltage is adjusted by sending a series of ON-OFF pulses. The average voltage is proportional to the width of the pulses known as the Duty Cycle.

The higher the duty cycle, the greater the average voltage being applied to the dc motor(High Speed), and the lower the duty cycle, the less the average voltage being applied to the dc motor(Low Speed).

H-Bridge – For controlling rotation direction:

The DC motor’s spinning direction can be controlled by changing the polarity of its input voltage. A common technique for doing this is to use an H-Bridge. An H-Bridge circuit contains four switches with the motor at the center forming an H-like arrangement.

Closing two particular switches at the same time reverse the polarity of the voltage applied to the motor. This causes a change in the spinning direction of the motor.

L298N Motor Driver IC: At the heart of the module is the big, black chip with a chunky heat sink is an L298N. The L298N is a dual-channel H-Bridge motor driver capable of driving a pair of DC motors. That means it can individually drive up to two motors making it ideal for building two-wheel robot platforms.

Power Supply: The L298N motor driver module is powered through 3-pin 3.5mm-pitch screw terminals. It consists of pins for motor power supply(Vs), ground, and 5V logic power supply(Vss).

The module has an onboard 78M05 5V regulator from STMicroelectronics. It can be enabled or disabled through a jumper.

When this jumper is in place, the 5V regulator is enabled, supplying logic power supply Vss) from the motor power supply(Vs). In this case, the 5V input terminal acts as an output pin and delivers 5V 0.5A. You can use it to power up the Arduino or other circuitry that requires a 5V power supply.

When the jumper is removed, the 5V regulator gets disabled and we have to supply 5 Volts separately through the 5 Volt input terminal.

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Wiring L298N motor driver module with Arduino UNO:

Now that we know everything about the module, we can begin hooking it up to our Arduino!

Start by connecting the power supply to the motors. In our experiment, we are using DC Gearbox Motors(also known as ‘TT’ motors) that are usually found in two-wheel-drive robots. They are rated for 3 to 12V. So, we will connect the external 12V power supply to the VCC terminal. Considering the internal voltage drop of L298N IC, the motors will receive 10V and will spin at a slightly slower RPM. But, that’s OK.

Next, we need to supply 5 Volts for the L298N’s logic circuitry. We will make use of the onboard 5V regulator and derive the 5 volts from the motor power supply so, keep the 5V-EN jumper in place.

Now, the input and enable pins(ENA, IN1, IN2, IN3, IN4, and ENB) of the L298N module are connected to six Arduino digital output pins(9, 8, 7, 5, 4, and 3). Note that the Arduino output pins 9 and 3 are both PWM-enabled.

Finally, connect one motor to terminal A(OUT1 & OUT2) and the other motor to terminal B(OUT3 & OUT4). You can interchange your motor’s connections, technically, there is no right or wrong way.

When you’re done you should have something that looks similar to the illustration shown below.

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