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L293D Motor driver

Component
 
fritsl's picture
By fritsl
@ February 15, 2008

Related shop: 
Picaxe
Vendor's Description: 


This chip enables you to take 4 outputs and turn them into 2 that can be reversed.

Note that the chip can get quite warm, but it is designed for that. 

 

Benefits: 

You can control 2 motors in both directions instead of 4 in only one direction. 

 

Disadvantages: 

There is a 1.5V voltage drop within the L293D driver chip.

If you run both motors and servos on the same circuit, your servos will allways get 1.5V more than the motors - and typically you would want it the other way around! 

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By robotplatform
@ Sun, 2011-11-20 08:59
robotplatform's picture

For those of you who are new to this motor driver, I have written a detailed tutorial on the driver; just in case it might help someone.

http://www.robotplatform.com/howto/L293/motor_driver_1.html

 

By guibot
@ Tue, 2008-09-02 03:39
guibot's picture

does anyone knows if there is any diference between L293D and L293B?   the datasheets seems to be similar..

my local hardware store only have L293B´s!

By robologist
@ Tue, 2008-09-02 09:37
robologist's picture
The L293D has flyback diodes on the outputs, where the L293B does not. Check out the schematic on page 2 of the datasheet. That shows that diodes have been added to the chip, to give the current spikes that occur when reversing directiona place to go. You might be able to do without them, but it is better practive to have them.
By guibot
@ Tue, 2008-09-02 12:05
guibot's picture

ok!!! thanks!!!
i only have one L293D here..   will have to travel almost 100klm to get some L293D´s     :]

By pjnai123
@ Thu, 2008-07-31 14:55

Is this only for picaxe or can it be used with other applications? 

 pjnai123!

By webmaster
@ Fri, 2008-08-01 12:41
webmaster's picture
Of course it can be used with anything, it is just a motor driver, has nothing to do with Picaxe!
By jklug80
@ Thu, 2008-05-15 17:49
jklug80's picture

As usual I figured it out after I posted. I looked at the datasheet for the 28x project board and it had specs for the motor driver. http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/AXE020.pdf

Bottom of page 4 shows the pins for the motor driver.

By jklug80
@ Thu, 2008-05-15 16:54
jklug80's picture

I'm going to wire up my motor driver (on a breadboard of course I want to learn which pins do what) and I have a couple questions. According to the datasheet (http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/L293D.pdf) it looks like I know the following pins:

  • Pin 8 supplies volatage to the chip (I'm using 5volts)
  • Pin 2 connects the picaxe pin to motor 1
  • Pin 3 and 4 connect to motor 1

Is the above true? If so what is Pin 1 (Enable 1) and Pin 16 (VSS Logic Supply Voltage)

I know it would be easier to use the project board, but I'm an overachiever ;) I want to understand things more than I need to. Once I figure it out I'll document it so I won't have to ask again.

By fritsl
@ Thu, 2008-05-08 10:23
fritsl's picture
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By TheCowGod
@ Wed, 2008-09-24 19:18
TheCowGod's picture
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