So glad i found you, before i found your Motor shield FAQ thread I was wondering if my motorshield was completely borked by my cack handed soldering. But now light and even motion!
One quick Q regarding this statement:
Im using, like many newbies im sure, my old lego technics stuff to play with for now.I connected a 6v supply but I only see 4.8v at the motor terminals.
There is typically a 1.2v drop across the L293D H-bridge chip. If you need a full 6v to the motor, you should use a 7.2v supply.
My motor is the first gen 9V
http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm Motor ref 2838
I need to sort myself an external power supply, a pile of AAs ran them originally, so a pile of AAs will be best for now i guess.
Question: Would i be ok putting 7AAs together and running a 10.5V pack, to account for the 1.2V loss in the H bridge? or would i be better off sticking to 8 and running the motor at a lower 7.8V speed?
does it make a jot of difference?
I pressume i can put pretty much what i want into the external power supply connections (within reason, not a car battery)
Quick bit of feedback: I got my adafruit instruction free last night. I found the soldering instructions ok, but it took me a good hour or two to find that the SERVO_1 and SERVO_2 need to be programmed as pin 9 and 10 (10 and 9 actually).
Is there a datasheet for the motorshield which outlines these things? I havent found it yet if there is!
Many thanks. Im sure i will be back when i come across my next problems.
Olly