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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

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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).

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  • Ok so that all makes sense but I think I am missing something... how does the power supply connect to both motor drivers? I know you mentioned +ve and -ve from power supply to motor controller but where would the connection of power to both motor drivers come in? Should the power supply have a total of 4 cables? 2 cables to one controller and two cables to the other controller?
    – Justin Priede
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 18:52
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    That's just a case of splicing/joining cables. You could even daisy chain the leads. E.g. positive PSU lead to motor driver 1 then another wire from there to motor driver 2. I'd probably feed the wires into one end of a terminal block and then connect multiple wires to the other end.
    – joan
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 20:44

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