I second the use of the Pololu shield. Its the same price $30 and has a higher amperage rating. I have used both and the Chinese knock offs work great for a HO programming and test track and they are only $4 on ebay.
Chinese knock offs are just that....you need to order more than one as they are a hit or miss type of thing I have found
I have one of the Rugged motor boards and find that it works no better than the others - certainly not as good as their specs imply. For most work I use one of the eBay clones for around $5.00 - if I need more power I just add the 43 amp H-Bridge for an additional $12.00 Details here: http://www.trainelectronics.com/DCC_Arduino/DCC++/index.htm dave
Scott - I have build up at least a dozen DCC++ systems for myself and club members and have had one problem board which I was able to fix. I agree that it is wise to order 2 to make sure you have one good one - even at that it is still at least 1/2 of the price of the name-brand motor boards. dave
Dave, thank you for sharing your experiences with the clone shields. That gave me confidence to order one (and a spare!) today. (I am trained on SMD rework, but my certificate is about a decade out of date at this point... ) Randy
Randy - I really believe that the error in mounting the resistor network that I found was an uncommon event - chances are excellent that both of your boards will work well! dave
Hello, what about using motor shield L293? Is there a chance to make it work with DCC++? What modifications on the board are necessary?
I believe that is functionally identical to the one we have been discussing that is available from eBay. dave
Any reason why the genuine arduino motor shield using a 15volt 5 amp laptop battery supply gets hotter using JMRI as opposed to Greg's DCC Controller software? Both are using the same serial interface on my hackintosh. I tested this on an N scale layout using the same locomotives and rolling stock.
Can you tell me the resistor values that you are using for the current senseing? I've got a few boards that don't implement current sense (pins tied to ground only) that I'd like to upgrade to be compatible with the 'standard' Arduino motor shield. AFAICT, the only differences are the current sense, and needing a one transistor switch like Dave Bodner put on his high current shields.
I found another motor shield that was not working properly this morning. When I turned the power on (either in JMRI or with <1>) the LEDs on the board never came on. A bit of detective work found two short circuits on the bottom of the board - I cleared them with a sharp probe and all is good! dave
Please clarify which jumpers to use? I am new to Arduino. The youtube video states you should jumper pins 13 and 4 for a motor shield on the mega 2560. time 15:45 The download from the open DCC project has a pdf stating you should jumper pins 13 and 2 Which jumper pattern is correct? If it matters, I am using a Chinese clone with a different USB chip set. I found and loaded the correct drivers, and loaded the base station sketch to the Mega clone.
The video is older than the pdf - consider the pdf to be the 'authority' and jumper pins 13 and 2. I also use a Mega and those are the pins I have jumpered when using the arduino motor shield.
I can confirm the 2-to-13 jumper for the Mega. My own setup is up and running as of last night. General question--working within the Deek-Robot motor shield's current limit, is there any need for a cooling fan when the DCC++ is enclosed? Mounted on the underside of a module, I can imagine the air will be fairly stagnant. Or are perforations to allow casual airflow enough? Thanks, Randy
Based on the high operating temps that Dave Bodnar measured, I would definitely lean toward forced air circulation - but that is an opinion with no direct experience to back it up. Given that the motor shield has a built in thermal shutdown you could try without the fan and see what happens, but if you are designing an enclosure I would plan for a fan.
