L298N motor driver issue

Question

I am facing the same issue with my motor driver. Initially I ran the code and connected the L298N with Arduino and it worked fine. At that time motors were running absolutely fine. But when I ran it sometimes later then the motors are not running. However the motors are getting power but I think thy are getting very less power from the Motor Driver.

I directly ran motors from Arduino +5V pin and the motors were running fine. Is there something wrong with my L298N motor driver?

One more thing I checked the power for all the pins for L298N motor Driver and all pins are working fine.

Here is my complete program:

const int MOTOR_RIGHT = 1;
const int MOTOR_LEFT =  2;
const int MR_CONTROL_PIN_A = 8;
const int MR_CONTROL_PIN_B = 9;
const int ML_CONTROL_PIN_A = 10;
const int ML_CONTROL_PIN_B = 11;

void setup() {
  // These two pins will act as output pin

  pinMode(MR_CONTROL_PIN_A,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(MR_CONTROL_PIN_B,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ML_CONTROL_PIN_A,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ML_CONTROL_PIN_B,OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(4800);

}

void loop() 
{
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

  forward(MOTOR_RIGHT);
  forward(MOTOR_LEFT);  
  delay(5000);  
  stopMotor(MOTOR_RIGHT);
  stopMotor(MOTOR_LEFT);
  delay(1000);
  backward(MOTOR_RIGHT);
  backward(MOTOR_LEFT);
  delay(5000);
  stopMotor(MOTOR_RIGHT);
  stopMotor(MOTOR_LEFT);
  delay(1000);

}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//Forward

  void forward(int motorNo)
  {

  Serial.print("\r\n Forward : ");
  Serial.print(motorNo);

  switch(motorNo)
  {
    case MOTOR_RIGHT:
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_A,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_B,LOW);
    break;

    case MOTOR_LEFT:
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_A,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_B,LOW);
    break;

  default:
    Serial.print("\r\n Error :Invalid Motor No ");
    Serial.print(motorNo);
   }
  }

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
  void backward(int motorNo)
  {
   Serial.print("\r\n Backward : ");
   Serial.print(motorNo);
  switch(motorNo)
  {
    case MOTOR_RIGHT:
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_A,LOW);
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_B,HIGH);
    break;

    case MOTOR_LEFT:
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_A,LOW);
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_B,HIGH);
    break;

  default:
    Serial.print("\r\n Error :Invalid Motor No : ");
    Serial.print(motorNo);
   }

  }

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  
  void stopMotor(int motorNo)
  {
   Serial.print("\r\n STOP : ");
   Serial.print(motorNo);
  switch(motorNo)
  {
    case MOTOR_RIGHT:
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_A,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(MR_CONTROL_PIN_B,HIGH);
    break;

    case MOTOR_LEFT:
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_A,LOW);
    digitalWrite(ML_CONTROL_PIN_B,LOW);
    break;

  default:
    Serial.print("\r\n Error :Invalid Motor No : ");
    Serial.print(motorNo);
   }

  }

Is there something wrong with my L298N ? How can I test it?

Answer 1

The specified minimum voltage for the motors is 2.5 volts higher than the logic supply.

You need to use a separate supply for the motor that is higher than the logic power.

Answer 2

9 volt batteries have very low capacity. That could be the cause of your problem. Replace the battery with a power supply with higher capacity. Or other bigger batteries that add up to around 9 volts.