Published August 13, 2020 © MIT

ESP32 x L293D Motor Board

The goal here was to make a High Power DC Motor driver with 4 L293D connected in parallel so it can provide 4A of current to DC Motor!

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours4,605

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Espressif ESP32S

Texas Instruments Dual H-Bridge motor drivers L293D

ams1117 Voltage regulator

Connectors

JLCPCB Customized PCB

Arduino UNO

UTSOURCE Electronic Parts

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

Video-

So a few weeks ago, I made a post about using an L293D with an ESP32 for controlling a motor with a simple hack.

the hack was - "we can hook two L293D in parallel to increase its output current and then we can connect high current motor with it"

https://www.hackster.io/Oniichan_is_ded/l293d-with-esp32-wemos-lolin-d32-v2-hacked-edition-ea2086

In order to try this hack on the next level,

I designed a PCB in which I connected 4x L293D in parallel along with an AMS1117 voltage regulator circuit and ultrasonic sensor pinout so we can add an ultrasonic sensor on this PCB.

Thanks UTSOURCE.net to offer electronic components for this project!you can check UTSOURCE.net, they deal in all kinds of electronics components like for example L293D and other discreet electronics components that I'm using in this project.

PCBs for this project was provided by JLCPCB, do check them out from here-http://jlcpcb.com/

the goal here is to drive this HIGH torque Gear DC motor.

Basically, a single L293D is capable of providing 1A at 12V, so two L293D will provide 2A, 3 will provide 3, and 4 will provide 4A which is enough to drive any high power Motor. (Read its datasheet for more INFO)

This was the basic theory behind this crazy experiment, this is crazy because generally if we have to drive high Power motor, we move on from L293D to L298N or much powerful driver or even make our own by connecting P and N channel Mosfets in H bridge config.

But if we just use the good old L293D in this way, we can drive a high power motor. Here's the circuit

BOM (bill of materials)

we gonna need the following components for the soldering process.

4x L293D
1x ESP32 lolin V2
male headers
female headers
battery con
12V battery
a dc motor
ams1117
m7 diode
100uf cap
10uf cap
200 Ohms resistor
500 Ohms resistor
3 LEDs
Custom PCB

Soldering Process

the soldering process is pretty easy and straight forward,

first, solder the ams1117 circuit, then add headers for ESP32 and breakout Headers along with motor connectors,

then just add L293D along with other remaining parts and that's basically it.

ADDING HEATSINK

So our circuit is basically ready but I'm gonna drive a high power motor with this setup so naturally, things might get a little hot so I'm gonna add a heatsink to L293D.

with Thermal Tape! and for the heatsink, I used a 2mm thick Aluminium sheet piece

CODE

I've loaded the test sketch to this setup which is basically a blink sketch for motor,

it will drive in one direction and then change the direction.

For the test run, just connect the motor with motor terminals and connect a 12V battery with it.

TEST RUN!

Watch the video for Test Run video and other info-

This Motor driver can be used in a Robot Project (I'm currently working on a robot project and will post about this in the future so stay tuned for that)

Leave a comment if you run into any problem!

Code

CODE

int motor1Pin1 = 14; //in3
int motor1Pin2 = 27; //in4
int enable1Pin = 25; //en2
 
// Setting PWM properties

const int freq = 30000;
const int pwmChannel = 0;
const int resolution = 8;
int dutyCycle = 200;
 
void setup() {
  // sets the pins as outputs:
  pinMode(motor1Pin1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(motor1Pin2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(enable1Pin, OUTPUT);
  
  // configure LED PWM functionalitites
  ledcSetup(pwmChannel, freq, resolution);
  
  // attach the channel to the GPIO to be controlled
  ledcAttachPin(enable1Pin, pwmChannel);
 
  Serial.begin(115200);
 
  // testing
  Serial.print("Testing DC Motor...");
}
 
void loop() {
  // Move the DC motor forward at maximum speed
  Serial.println("Moving Forward");
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin2, HIGH); 
  delay(2000);
 
  // Stop the DC motor
  Serial.println("Motor stopped");
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin2, LOW);
  delay(1000);
 
  // Move DC motor backwards at maximum speed
  Serial.println("Moving Backwards");
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin1, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin2, LOW); 
  delay(2000);
 
  // Stop the DC motor
  Serial.println("Motor stopped");
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin2, LOW);
  delay(1000);
 
  // Move DC motor forward with increasing speed
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin1, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(motor1Pin2, LOW);
  while (dutyCycle <= 255){
    ledcWrite(pwmChannel, dutyCycle);   
    Serial.print("Forward with duty cycle: ");
    Serial.println(dutyCycle);
    dutyCycle = dutyCycle + 5;
    delay(500);
  }
  dutyCycle = 200;
}

Credits

Arnov Sharma

310 projects • 307 followers

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ESP32 x L293D Motor Board

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Soldering Process

ADDING HEATSINK

CODE

TEST RUN!

Schematics

sch for pcb

L293d Wiring with esp32

Code

CODE

Credits

Arnov Sharma

Comments

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ESP32 x L293D Motor Board

ESP32 x L293D Motor Board

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Soldering Process

ADDING HEATSINK

CODE

TEST RUN!

Schematics

sch for pcb

L293d Wiring with esp32

Code

CODE

Credits

Arnov Sharma

Comments

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