DC motors only run in one direction

Question

I'm quite new to Arduino and am making my first proper project, an obstacle avoiding robot.

I'm using an Arduino Uno and a motor shield compatible with the Adafruit motor driver library. I'm trying to run the example code from here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield/using-dc-motors, but with both motors running at once. This should run the motors forward for 1 sec, backward for 1 sec and then pause for 1 sec.

I'm getting inconsistent behaviour when I run the code. When I only connect 1 motor, it works fine. When the Arduino is connected to my laptop via USB, it works fine. However, when I use the 6V external power supply and both motors, they will only move in 1 direction and remain still during the second movement period. When I set them to move forward-backward-stationary, they only move forwards. When I set them to backward-forward-stationary, they only move backwards.

Any ideas what might be causing this / how I could fix it? Like I said, I'm pretty new to this so might be making a simple mistake.

Here's my setup:

I have 2 DC motors, one attached to port 1 and the other to port 4 on the motor shield. The power supply is 4 AA batteries (which I think is 6V?), which is also connected to the motor shield.

And here's my code:

#include <AFMotor.h>

AF_DCMotor leftMotor(1, MOTOR12_1KHZ);
AF_DCMotor rightMotor(4, MOTOR12_1KHZ);

void setup() {
  leftMotor.setSpeed(255);
  rightMotor.setSpeed(255);
}

void loop() {
  leftMotor.run(FORWARD);
  rightMotor.run(FORWARD);
  delay(1000);

  leftMotor.run(BACKWARD);
  rightMotor.run(BACKWARD);
  delay(1000);

  leftMotor.run(RELEASE);
  rightMotor.run(RELEASE);
  delay(1000);
}

Any help is much appreciated!

Answer 1

Possible hardware solution:

Consider using 2 battery packs. One connected to the Arduino and the other connected to the motor drive board. Remember to connect the grounds of the 2 battery packs together.

Possible software solution:

Software is often over looked when solving what appears to be a hardware issue. Consider introducing a short pause between motor direction changes. It may be that the power required to reverse the direction of a motor exceeds the capacity of the battery pack. Likely it will take less power to first stop the motor, pause then start the motor in the opposite direction.

Answer 2

Your code looks pretty straightforward, and the fact that everything works properly with the laptop-USB connector makes me suspect that your problem lies with the battery pack.

When you said "When the Arduino is connected to my laptop via USB, it works fine.", did you mean that the 4-cell battery pack is still connected to the motor shield as shown, but the Arduino is being powered from the laptop via USB?

I suspect that what is going on is that during the transition from one direction to the other, the battery voltage temporarily drops below the Arduino's low-voltage cutoff point and everything stops, EXCEPT, when the Arduino is connected to the laptop via USB, the USB connection continues to power the Arduino through the dropout period and everything works.

Since you are starting to work with electronics and Arduino, you might want to consider getting a basic DVM (Digital Volt-AmpMeter) and a basic lab power supply. These two items would allow you to easily troubleshoot this problem. A common desktop PC power supply with 5, 12 and (sometimes) 24V DC output makes a good bench power supply and are widely available and cheap.

Hope this helps,

Frank

Answer 3

4 AA batteries is 6 volts, which is the right amount of voltage for 2 DC motors. Like all the other answers on this page, the problem most likely has to do with your battery pack, although I am not sure how that would affect your motors. I can't really tell from the picture, but the problem would have to be with the wiring from your battery pack. If you have wires that go from the battery pack, to the motors, you should check to make sure that those are properly wired, as that would be a problem.

I hope this information helps, and the rest of your projects with Arduino go very smoothly!

-Simon