Motor Controller Board Uncertainty for Raspberry Pi

Question

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. I am trying to build a small car with 4 motors by using the GPIO pins to control the motors. I would like to be able to make the motor go forward, reverse, and moderate the speed of each motor (which I would do in code).

However, according to https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/physical-computing/14, this is not possible without using a motor controller add-on board. Unfortunately, the documentation does not provide any information on which motor controller boards are compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4, or any further specification for the motor controller board. Also, the image depicted in the link shows a motor control board for 2 motors, while I would like to use 4 motors.

I have scoured Amazon and Adafruit, but I am unable to find anything that looks like the motor controller board depicted in the link above (also depicted here).

I am just unsure of how to verify that a given motor-controller board will work for the tasks that I want to perform (listed in the first paragraph).

Is there any recommendation for any motor controller board that will allow me to do my goal tasks with the Raspberry Pi?

Answer 1

I suggest you look at motor driver boards based on one of the following chips

• L298N
• L29D
• L9110S

Each chip allows you to control two motors, forward, backwards, and control speed (using PWM on the inputs).

Study the datasheets to see what output voltages and current they support to see if they are suitable for your motors.