PiHut
Motor shield for Raspberry Pi
A Raspberry Pi motor controller HAT built around the L293D dual H-bridge driver IC, designed to make building a Raspberry Pi robot easy and fun. Control up t...
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A Raspberry Pi motor controller HAT built around the L293D dual H-bridge driver IC, designed to make building a Raspberry Pi robot easy and fun. Control up to 4 DC motors or 2 stepper motors at up to 600 mA (1 A peak) per channel.
The board includes breakout connectors for IR line sensors and an ultrasonic sensor with built-in 3.3 V level protection, plus onboard LED arrow indicators that show motor direction in real time — great for debugging your code.
Key Features
- L293D Dual H-Bridge – Control up to 4 DC motors or 2 stepper motors
- Motor Supply Range: 6–24 V
- Output Current: 600 mA continuous, 1 A peak per channel
- LED Direction Indicators – Onboard arrow LEDs show motor direction
- 2× IR Sensor Connectors – With 3.3 V level output protection
- 1× Ultrasonic Sensor Connector – With 3.3 V level output protection
- GPIO Stacking Header – Pass-through access to remaining GPIO pins
- Python Library & GUI – Includes Python library and GUI for motor control
Specifications
- Driver IC: L293D
- Motor Channels: 4 DC or 2 stepper
- Motor Supply: 6–24 V (screw terminal or male header)
- Per-Channel Current: 600 mA / 1 A peak
- Logic Level: 3.3 V (Raspberry Pi compatible)
Ideal For
- Raspberry Pi robots and motorised projects
- Line-following and obstacle-detecting robots
- Stepper motor control experiments
- STEM education and robotics workshops
Package Contents
- 1× Motor Shield for Raspberry Pi
Resources
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- breakout
- A breakout board carries a small or fine-pitched component and brings its connections out to standard, breadboard- and header-friendly pins. Describing a part as a breakout means it can be wired into a project without soldering directly to the component's tiny contacts.
- DC
- DC means direct current, where electricity flows in one constant direction, as supplied by batteries, USB ports and many plug-pack power supplies. When a product specifies DC, it runs from a DC supply rather than mains AC, so you need to provide the correct voltage and polarity.
- GPIO
- General-purpose input/output pins are microcontroller pins you can set in software to read signals, switch devices on and off, or connect to peripherals. The number of GPIO pins matters because it limits how many buttons, LEDs, sensors, and other parts you can wire directly to the board.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode (LED) is a small electronic component that emits light when current flows through it in the correct direction. Because it only conducts one way, its polarity matters, and a through-hole LED must be soldered the correct way around to light up.
- Shield
- An add-on board that plugs into a main controller board to give it extra features such as sensing, motor control or communication. Knowing a product supports shields helps you judge whether it can connect neatly into an existing maker-board setup.
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