They arrived, and I wired it up, to the Arduino and 9v Battery Holder, and I loaded the program on and managed to run the motor. The next time I tried it, I decided to rewire it because the single wires kept on slipping out of the terminals. I wired it up with copper wires and in my foolishness, I plugged in the ground to the 5v on the arduino, when it was actually supposed to go onto the ground on the Arduino. I ran the motor controller, and the motor didnt move, but I suspect that was with my inability to connect the wires correctly to the screw terminals. I did some adjusting of the wires in order to get the motor to run, and this included removing all the power and ground wires, after I wired it up again, the power led was really dim. Usually its bright, but for some reason it was dim, and once again the motor was refusing to run.
This happened a few days ago, and upon trying it again today, the power led doesnt even come on! I have since corrected the wiring on the arduino, and have also checked that the batteries are charged, but still nothing. I tried it on the second one, which also had a dim power led earlier, and even on that one nothing turns on.
By moving that cable on the arduino from ground to 5v would I have damaged the motor controller in any way, or is it just that I have a bad connection to the screw terminals?
I tried again, and it only works when the battery holder is kept in a certain position…
My experience of these screw type terminals has been a very bad one, as I have no idea how to connect them up properly…
Could someone please tell me what they do in order to get a reliable connection to the screw terminals shown in the link in the previous post?
I am thinking of completely removing the screw terminals from that board and just soldering the wires on, would that be a better option?
One other thing, I realised the motor controller only works when it is not connected to the battery holder, and it is only connected to the arduino ground…
When I put in the battery holder and add batteries it doesnt seem to work. Is is ok for the motor controller to run of the arduino ground?
I wired it up according to the diagram shown on the df robot website, for some reason I cant access that website to send you a link, but if you go there and take a look it will show you a wiring diagram, that is how I wired it up
Should I first connect the two ground wires together and then put that into the motor controller, or should I put the 2 ground wires separately into the screw terminals?
Open up the screw terminals completely (i.e. as low as they will go in the terminal. Note that screw terminals are intended to “pinch” the wires from the bottom up, and many people confuse it wish pushing down on the wire, which would make for a bad and loose connection. Does that solve your issue?
Both wires from the battery should be connected to the motor controller, but you also need the same ground connected to the Arduino (principle of “common ground”). You can use a spare wire to do this.
