Did I Fry the Arduino Motor Controller

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

Hey Everyone,

Quick question: I recently bought the Arduino Motor Shield robotshop.com/en/arduino-motor-shield-v3.html and was testing a prototype last night. I guess I was pretty tired, but I accidentally connected my 12V 1.3Ah battery in reverse polarity to the shields vin/ground connections. There was a little smoke involved. After this happened, I removed the shield and tested the Uno v3 by itself and it worked fine so at least there is that. I then connected the shield back up and tested the voltage coming out of the motor output connectors when moving the motor forward/reverse. It worked, but only displayed 3V in either direction. So what do you think?

Thanks,

jlev

2

The L298 H-bridge chip that’s on the shield doesn’t have any reverse polarity protection, so it’s very likely that is broken, especially if there was smoke.

The V_in of the shield also connects to the V_in of the Arduino board, so if you tested your Arduino with a USB cable, it’s possible that the 5V regular is also damaged… but besides that, I’d say you’re pretty lucky :smiley: