In the past I used different motor shields like the A4988, DVR8825 and ULN2003A. Now for one of my ongoing projects i’m going to try the L293D motor shield.
L293D motor shield
ESP-12E Motor Shield is designed and developed by Shenzhen Doctors of Intelligence & Technology. This large current motor driven module can compatible with ESP12E Dev Kit and NodeMCU.By using the overlap-plug design, the motor shield can be directly plugged by ESP-12E Dev Kit and NodeMCU Lua module.
This shield board is driven by the special excent large power full-bridge chip L293D from the famous Stmicroelectronics company, which can directly drive 2-channels DC motors or one-channel stepper motor. The driven current can be arrived at 1.2A. This board is generated with national layout, SMT ensuption, and convenient installation.
In this motor shield board, the IO port of ESP-12E Dev Kit is used as the control port. The logic chip configured inside can finish IC driven. Thus, the shield board has four ports: D1, D2, D3, and D3, which are used as PWMA(motor A), PWMB (motor B), DA (direction of motor A), and DB (direction of motor B), respectively.
In addition, this shield board has many pins, such as VIN, 3.3V, DIO, AIO, SDIO, UART, SPI, RST, and EN, thus can conveniently connect all kinds of sensors (e.g., temperature and humidy, buzzer, light, relay sensor, etc.).The board is developed by the humanized design with a power switch, and thus user can control the on-off of power conveniently.
Technique Specifications
Input Power:
- Motor power (VM): 4.5~36V, can be powered separately.
- Control power (VIN): 4.5V~9V(10V MAX), can be powered separately.
- Provide the shorcut connector (short by VM and VIN), thus can use one power source (must be 4.5V~9V) to complete the drive and control for motor at a time.
- Logic working current Iss:<=60mA (Vi=L), <=(Vi=H).
- Driven working current Io: <=1.2A.
- Max of dissipation power: 4W(T=90℃).
- Control signal input voltage: 2.3V<=VIH<=VIN (high), -0.3V<=VIL<=1.5V (low).
- Woring temperature:* -25℃-+125℃.
- Driven model: double ways large power H bridge driven.
- ESP-12E Dev Kit control port: D1, D3 (motor A); D2, D4 (motor B).
- Weight: about 20g.
Interface and Function
When you place your NodeMCU V3.0 on the L293D shield, it wil use a few pins to control the motor(s). In the table below you can see which of the pins are used by the shield and which are free and what there function is.
PIN |
NODEMCU v3.0 |
L293D MOTOR SHIELD |
PIN |
NODEMCU V3.0 |
L293D MOTOR SHIELD |
|
| A0 | ANALOG INPUT | FREE | D0 | I/O | FREE | |
| GND | GND | GND | D1 | USED | MOTOR A SPEED | |
| VU | 5V USB POWER | OUTPUT | D2 | USED | MOTOR B SPEED | |
| SD3 | I/O | FREE | D3 | USED | MOTOR A DIRECTION | |
| SD2 | I/O | FREE | D4 | USED | MOTOR B DIRECTION | |
| SD1 | MOSI | FREE | 3.3V | 3.3V | OUTPUT | |
| CMD | CS | FREE | GND | GND | GND | |
| SD0 | MISO | FREE | D5 | USED | INT1 | |
| CLK | SCLK | FREE | D6 | USED | INT2 | |
| GND | GND | GND | D7 | USED | INT3 | |
| 3.3V | 3.3V | OUTPUT | D8 | USED | INT4 | |
| EN | EN | FREE | D9 | I/O | FREE | |
| RTS | RTS | FREE | D10 | I/O | FREE | |
| GND | GND | GND | GND | GND | GND | |
| VIN | 4.5V ~ 9 V | INPUT | 3.3V | 3.3V | OUTPUT |
Here you can see the NodeMCU v3.0 placed on the L293D shield.
FRITZING PART
Because I always use the Fritzing app to illustrate the hardware setup of a new project, I need a new fritzing part for future setup’s. So after some designing in illustrator this is the end result.
Note: I made wo Fritzing parts, because there are multi versions available, just choose the one you have.
DOWNLOAD ALL FILES FOR THIS PROJECT ON GITHUB.
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