Driving DC Motors with Microcontrollers

How to use 7 different motor driver modules with an Arduino or any microcontroller. Hookup, code & demonstrations with motors big and small.

Today we will be working with lots of motor drivers and lots of motors!

You’ll see how there are actually three methods used among all of these drivers for controlling speed and direction. Because of this, it’s pretty easy to swap drivers and use a sketch for small motors to be used with much larger ones (or vice-versa).

I’ll be driving everything with a simple Arduino Uno today, but you could use any microcontroller to work with these motor drivers.

The code for all these motors is pretty simple, I’ll show it to you, and I’ll also introduce you to a few libraries that make coding for these motor drivers a breeze. We’ll also check out a motor driver library from Cytron that is a hidden gem, as it can be used with ANY of these drivers!

Here is the Table of Contents for today's video:

00:00 - Introduction
01:17 - DC Motor Driver Basics
08:05 - L298N Dual H-Bridge
16:13 - TB6612FNG Dual H-Bridge
25:24 - DRV8871 Single H-Bridge
31:08 - MX1508 Dual H-Bridge
38:54 - DBH-12 Dual H-Bridge
46:27 - IBT-2 Single H-Bridge
51:17 - MD25HV Single H-Bridge & Controller
1:02:27 - Conclusion

Hope you enjoy this, remember that the article on the DroneBot Workshop website has all the code I used today.

[Dronebotworkshop]

Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!!


Thanks!

Bill (The real one!)

[mecanoman]

Just so you know the quality of the content here. This is waaaay better than the Automatization lab on my university at the Engineering faculty. Regards!

[alwedtechnology]

I am Edgar from Kenya, Africa..
I don't have the words to thank you for turning my dreams into reality. May God Bless you Abundantly

[MrOnlineCoder]

That's exactly the video I needed. As always, highest quality. Thank you!

[xzsba]

Thank you very much... you have helped an 80 year Old Man to understand how his CNC motors work. Very much appreciated. Have a Great and Safe Day.

[tukituki]

I am currently a junior majoring in Computer Engineering. I can spend hours looking for specific information out there, and it drives me crazy. You bring all the essential knowledge in one video and with excellent structure and explanations. I cannot thank you enough for these kind of videos!

[Eagle]

As an aircraft mechanic, A/P, with an Inspectors Authorization, IA, I’m just getting into this world…but I find your videos VERY informative and helpful. Thank you and I really appreciate your help in understanding in a way that I can develop my own projects. Cheers, new sub here👍

[usefulelectronics]

This is all in one motor driver tutorial!
I didn’t not know about some of these drivers. Thank you for the amazing comparison!

Keep it up !

[martinzaragoza]

This is an amazing video, super comprehensive and offers multiple alternatives for different use-cases.
Better yet... it comes with an attached article with source code and library links.
BRILLIANT WORK

[harryhino]

Great content as usual.
Minor nit pick. Vbe is 0.7V for bipolar transistors; Vce(sat) is 0.3V.
When using FETs, keep in mind that they cannot change from OFF to ON (or ON to OFF) instantaneously; there is a slew rate. When they are in this intermediate state, there is a voltage drop and a current flow; so they have to dissipate power as heat. It is nowhere near as bad as bipolar devices, but needs to be kept in mind when switching them very fast.

[pixelsquarelight]

Although I have watched many of your videos I rarely but I wanted to stop and thank you for the excellent content that you provide. I am highly appreciative of your presentational style you're calm demeanor and your thorough and useful explanations. There have been multiple times where your videos have helped me understand concepts well enough to implement them in my experiments and projects and this has enriched the quality of my life. I sincerely appreciate your efforts. Thank you

[EsotericArctos]

H-Bridge devices have so many different applications. They can be looked at primarily as a motor controller but I also use a H Bridge to convert the digital signal out from an Arduino to DCC +-15V square wave for HO/OO scale model railways. Very versatile device.

[sinjhguddu]

Once more, thank you for this beautiful masterclass on controlling DC motors. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Do stay well.

[ericroque]

I am always amazed how DroneBot Workshop present each topic in a very comprehensive and yet concise manner. It's like I'm reading a book but everything makes so much sense. I hope you would consider presenting courses in EdX, coursera, etc.

[Reach]

Not to be ignored are the motor controller boards that communicate with the Arduino via I2C. They only require two of the precious IO pins to drive your robot’s motors, and the libraries available to control them take care of all the setup details. People new to the sport will be best off sticking with brands such as SparkFun or Adafruit, and picking motors from the same places that they indicate are compatible with the board you choose.

[gpTeacher]

Very informative and well-presented! Thank you!

[TediumGenius]

This is a FANTASTIC treatise in motor control options!!! With some excellent tips and the 98% speed warning!!! I can't get enough of your instruction! Well done as always!!!

[bruinflight]

EXCELLENT TOPIC! Thank you for sharing this knowledge, I've got some projects in mind that I'd love to apply this to.

[Mike.Kachar]

Thank you very much for the videos you do!

[p.g.pg]

Grand merci pour cet énorme travail de synthèse sur les drivers!