20. Connecting rear car motor to Motor Driver

Description and scheme of the L298N Motor Driver

It's time we introduce you to all the elements on the L298N Motor Driver. What are the names of the different elements and how are we going to refer to them.

PCB Terminals

Looking at the picture we have a total of 7 blue screwdriver connectors. These connectors are called PCB Terminals. That is the official name. You can search on the internet for it and you will see many other such terminals.

The two on the left are for motor A. In our case these will be used for the back motor that will drive the car forward and backwards. On the right, we have two other blue connectors that will be used for turning left and turning right. 

Input Pins

There are four pins on this driver numbered 1 to 4. These are called input pins and they should be connected to the controller. 

Jumpers

We know. We know. It is getting quite tedious with the new names. Only three more. We promise. 

In the picture below, you could see 2 of the 3 jumpers that the motor driver has. They are highlighted. The jumpers simple connect the output PCB Terminals to the Input Pins. 

Capacitors

We are not going it use them in any way during this course. The capacitors are the two large cylindrical elements.

Radiator

Where there is current there is also heat. The goal of the radiator is to disperse this heat. 

The driver from Below

Take a look at the driver from below. In the picture, you could see the out 1,2,3,4 highlighted. 

Connect rear car motor to Motor A Terminals on the L298N Motor Driver

In this tutorial, we will connect the rear car motor to the driver. You remember the PCB Terminals? The cables from the motors should be connected to two of those PCB Terminals.

TL. DR. 

Rear motor "Forward" goes to Output 1. Read Motor "Backward" goes to Output 2.

Rear motor

The rear motor is at the back of the car. It has two cables. One of the cables is called forward because it would make the motor rotate and move the car forward. The other is backward. It will move the car backwards. The cables should already be marked in the previous steps of the course. Check the marks. 

In the picture you see three things highlighted. From left to right these are - the cables connected to the PCB Terminals, the cables extended with Heat Shrink Tubing and the cables at the end connected to the rear motor. The green cable is "forward" in our case and the blue is "backwards" 

How to connect L298N To Motor And Batteries

3D scheme with instructions on how to connect the L298N driver to the batteries and to the motor. Just that. Connecting to the Raspberry Pi is at a later stage of the course.