Motor shield v1 with 4 DC motors with encoder?

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Trion
 
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Motor shield v1 with 4 DC motors with encoder?

Post by Trion »

Hi,

I have a Motor Shield v1, can I use it together with four DC motors that have encoders? I haven't found any tutorials that deal with DC motors, motor shields and encoders. What I have read is that for the encoder signal it's necessary to use a pin with interrupt capability. I have an Arduino Uno, it only has two such pins. Is there a clever way to connect the 4 motors to the 2 pins?

Thanks!

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Re: Motor shield v1 with 4 DC motors with encoder?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The shield has no direct support for encoders. Typically, quadrature encoders require 2 pins - preferably with interrupts. The Arduino UNO has only 2 external interrupts, but pin-change interrupts are supported on all pins. http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/PinChangeInterrupt

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Re: Motor shield v1 with 4 DC motors with encoder?

Post by Trion »

Wow, instant reply.
Pin-Change interrupts to the rescue then!
The shield documentation at https://learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pd ... shield.pdf tells me which pins I can use when only driving 4 DC motors.
Thanks!

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