3 12V DC motors on raspberry pi with L298N

Question

Completely new to this stuff. For context, I am trying to connect 3 DC motors that probably are 12v. I haven't bought them yet, they will definitely be more than 5v. I want to be able to control all three motors from my pi.

In my head, I am thinking it would go like this. I will need three L298N's, one for each motor. I understand how you can use those motor drive controllers to power and interact with the motor from the pi but I am not understanding how I can use one single power source for all three motors. I want to use the micro usb to power the pi and a single power source for the motors.

Essentially, I need to power three 5v+ motors and control them each directionally from my pi. Would using three motor drivers be the way to do this? How can I power them all from one source?

Thank you for any insight at all, I appreciate it more than you know

Answer 1

The L298N can control two DC motors so you only need two L298N to drive your three motors.

The L298N motor driver module will have screw terminals for the +ve and -ve for the motor power supply. Connect the +ve to the +ve of your 12V power supply and the -ve to the -ve (ground) of your 12V power supply.

You connect the L298N control signals (usually marked IN1, IN2, IN3, IN4) to spare Pi GPIO.

The only other thing you need to do is connect a Pi ground to each L298N motor driver module -ve screw terminal (the same as you connected the 12V power supply ground to).