This tutorial is for the now ancient V1 Motor shield. Chances are you have a V2, check out the tutorial https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino This tutorial is for historical reference and previous customers only!

Arduino is a great starting point for electronics, and with a motor shield it can also be a nice tidy platform for robotics and mechatronics. Here is a design for a full-featured motor shield that will be able to power many simple to medium-complexity projects.

  • 2 connections for 5V 'hobby' servos connected to the Arduino's high-resolution dedicated timer - no jitter!
  • Up to 4 bi-directional DC motors with individual 8-bit speed selection (so, about 0.5% resolution)
  • Up to 2 stepper motors (unipolar or bipolar) with single coil, double coil, interleaved or micro-stepping.
  • 4 H-Bridges: L293D chipset provides 0.6A per bridge (1.2A peak) with thermal shutdown protection, 4.5V to 25V
  • Pull down resistors keep motors disabled during power-up
  • Big terminal block connectors to easily hook up wires (10-22AWG) and power
  • Arduino reset button brought up top
  • 2-pin terminal block to connect external power, for seperate logic/motor supplies
  • Tested compatible with Mega, Diecimila, & Duemilanove
  • Full kit available for purchase from the Adafruit shop.
  • Download the easy-to-use Arduino software libraries and you're ready to go!

This guide was first published on Aug 27, 2012. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Aug 13, 2012.

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