Motor Drivers are popular among Robotics/ Hardware Enthusiasts to build various cool projects. One of the most popular among them is the L298N motor driver. Conventionally, we use the motor driver, a bunch of wires and connect it to our microcontroller to control different actuators. But in our version of the Motor Driver, we have made it into a one stop solution by removing the excess of wires and connecing the Wemos DI mini microcontroller, all in one single PCB!
Wemos D1 mini was chosen for it WiFi functionality. We have our own GUI through which the motor driver can be controlled. One of the main objective of making this Motor Driver was to reduce the time to prototype projects and also to make your bots completely wireless. You can simply connect the motors and control it via your mobile through WiFi. That's how simple it is!
- Supply Voltage: 6 - 12V
- Output Current: 1.2A (max)
- 500mA Fuse Protection for Wemos D1 mini
- Can be used separately as a conventional L298N Motor Driver as well
- Make sure you install one of the supported version of Arduino IDE and have ESP8266 core installed.
- Package is tested with Arduino IDE v 1.8.5 <-> plugin v 0.5.0 so it is recommended to use the same.
- To install Spiffs files uploader please follow installation tutorials provided in the tutorial.
- Once the plugging and Arduino IDE are installed successfully move on to next step of installation of stack to controller.
- Clone the repo to the system and open the project in Arduino IDE.
- Note:Make sure data folder is present in current working directory.
- Use spiffs files uploader to flash the HTML UI to ESP. To upload navigate to Tools>ESP8266 Sketch Data Upload.
- Wait for the files to upload once the files are uploaded, compile and upload the program.
- Note:Once the files are uploaded no need to reupload file each time a new code is flashed.
| Controller Gpio | MotorDriver pin |
|---|---|
| D1 | EN1 |
| D5 | IN1 |
| D6 | IN2 |
| D2 | EN2 |
| D7 | IN3 |
| D8 | IN4 |
| D3 | L1-led |
| D0 | L2-led |
- In case using ESP as Access point(AP mode) connect to the network SSID mentioned in the file data>wifi>ap.txt present in the working directory.
- Open your favourite web browser and type wirelessmd.local and the UI pops up in the browser and you are ready to control the motors wirelessely.
All of the schematic and board layout files are present in this folder. The PCB was designed using KiCAD 6.0 version. The board is based upon the popular Dual Full Bridge Motor Driver L298N and the miniature wireless microntroller development board Wemos D1 mini. The PCB can output nearly 1.2A per channel. Since it has the Wemos D1 mini on board, it gives the user the capability to control the motors wwirelessly using our unique GUI.
- WirelessMD/Hardware/KiCAD Project - Contains the KiCAD Project File
- WirelessMD/Hardware/WirelessMD_sch.pdf - Schematic of Wireless Motor Driver PCB