The L298 Breadboard Adapter
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| The Bare L298 Breadboard Adapter |
Simplifies breadboard experiments with the L298 Motor Controller IC: $2.55 each (Bare Board)
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| A Completed L298 Breadboard Adapter |
The L298 Breadboard Adapter evolved from the motor controller experiments presented in PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius. If you haven't read those experiments, it would be a good idea to read the L298 Motor Driver Dastasheet in order to familiarize yourself with the functions of the L298's various input and output pins.
The above photo of the completed L298 adapter shows an earlier prototype version of the board, in which I forgot to include labels for the two Ground connections on both ends of the lower 12-pin header. These connections are properly labeled on the current version of the adapter (see the bare board at the top of this page); they can be used to implement the current-sensing feature of the L298 (see the L298 datasheet or the Evil Genius book).
The L298 Breadboard adapter is a very simple PC board; its only function is to modify the spacing of the L298 pins so that the motor controller IC can be easily inserted into a breadboard. The adapter board is intended to be used with relatively low-power motors, because most breadboards aren't capable of handling multi-Amp currents. If you look at the photo at the top of this page, you can see that each of the L298 output pins is connected to two pins on the top header. If you do want to experiment with higher-power motors, you could run two wires to each motor and battery connection to increase the power-handling capabilities. However, do so at your own risk; you may discolor or melt some of the your breadboard's plastic!
Assembly Instructions
The L298 Adapter board is super-simple to assemble. The only parts that are needed are two 12-pin straight male headers and the L298 chip. First, insert the L298 IC from the top of the board and solder it in place on the bottom of the board. Next, insert the two 12-pin male headers (appropriately spaced) into a breadboard with the short ends facing up, and then place the L298 adapter board on top of the two headers and solder all the short ends of the pins on the top of the adapter board. To use the completed L298 Breadboard Adapter, simply insert it into a breadboard similarly to any IC. In other words, make sure that the two headers are on opposite sides of the center divider on the breadboard.
If you have any problems getting your L298 adapter board to function properly, email me at Ron@JRHackett.net and I will do what I can to help.