Learn to use Motor Driver
What is a Motor Driver?
Motor driver is used to control motion of a motor and its direction by feeding current accordingly. Output of a motor driver is in digital form so it uses PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control speed of a motor. Motor Driver are basically current amplifiers followed by input signals. It can also drive inductive loads such as relays, solenoids, transformer etc.
Block Diagram of Motor Driver
Today (2021) many types of motor driver modules available in the market. Using a single transistor is simplest form of motor driver. L293D IC is used commonly for general purpose motor driver. Like other driver it is capable of driving two motor independently both clockwise and anti-clockwise. Positive and Negative supply should not be altered otherwise this IC gets damage easily. This type of IC use H Bridge circuit for reverse and forward direction.
L293D
You can use this low power driver (600 mA output) for Plastic bo motor, Metal Gear Motor, Simple DC Motor etc. For stepper motor it is not recommended due to power efficiency (impedance mismatch) also it gets heated quickly in case of stepper motor. It is designed to accept standard DTL or TTL logic levels
L298N Motor Driver
In terms of capacity It is better than L293 It is a high voltage (upto 46V), high current (upto 4A) dual full-bridge driver designed to accept standardTTL logic levels. If you are using big motor then go for L298N motor driver.
You can also use mini L293N. It is good for battery powered smart cars, toy cars, robots. This is small size, Low weight, Low cost driver module. It works at 2V to 10V supply and maximun output current is 1.5A
A4988 driver Stepper Motor Driver
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This is most common stepper motor driver. Voltage range 8-35V.
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It has built-in translator for easy operation. Simply inputting one pulse on the STEP input drives the motor one microstep. There are no phase sequence tables, high frequency control lines, or complex interfaces to program.
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It is used for driving four wire stepper motor.
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It is able to controls big stepper motor.