HOWTO control DC motors

[TrDA-hab]

What it can be used for:

the control of horizontal curtain or vertical shutters, blinds adjuster or window opener, pet feeders, opening of a water tap for watering the lawn, rotating table for subject photography, opening the ventilation flap, PTZ camera, 3D Scanner Table, linear Actuator.

1. MX1508 Motor Driver.

Video of the driver's work:

• https://youtu.be/9aGlk5LSMys

Note:

• you cannot control the RPM of the DC motor

How to use it:

• You must add support for Shutter in my_user_config.h file.
• Run commands in the console to test the motor (you must first configure the GPIO!):
  ShutterMode 1 // Enabling "Shutter mode 1"
  ShutterOpenDuration 2 // Shutter opening time = 2 seconds
  ShutterCloseDuration 2 // Shutter closing time = 2 seconds
  Restart 1 // Restart Tasmota
  ShutterOpen // CW motor rotation
  ShutterClose // CWW motor rotation

Wemos Pin	GPIO	Component	Motor Signal
D1	5	Relay2	CW
D2	4	Relay1	CCW

More information:

• About shutter
• Shutter commands

2. TB6612FNG Motor Driver.

More information:

• About shutter
• Shutter commands
• About TB6612FNG

Video of the driver's work:

• https://youtu.be/e9kBO-Brymo
• https://youtu.be/3fbM7FQ-1wY

2.1 Using ONE motor

Note:

• you can control the RPM of the DC motor !

How to use it:

• You must add support for Shutter in my_user_config.h file.
• Run commands in the console (you must first configure the GPIO!):
  Rule1 ON system#boot DO Backlog Power3 1; Dimmer 75 ENDON // Enabling the driver and setting the PWM to 75%.
  Rule1 1 // Enabling Rule1
  WebButton4 STBY // To rename a web button (optional)
• Run commands in the console to test the motor (you must first configure the GPIO!):
  ShutterMode 1 // Enabling "Shutter mode 1"
  Restart 1 // Restart Tasmota
  ShutterOpen // test CW motor rotation
  ShutterClose // test CWW motor rotation

Wemos Pin	GPIO	Component	Motor Signal
D5	14	Relay3	STBY
D6	12	Relay1	CW
D7	13	Relay2	CCW
D8	15	PWM1	PWM

2.2 Using DUAL motor.

Note:

• you can control the RPM of the DC motors !

How to use it:

• You must add support for Shutter in my_user_config.h file.
• Run commands in the console (you must first configure the GPIO!):
  SetOption68 1 // Enable multi-channel PWM
  SetOption73 1 // Enable detach buttons from relays
  Rule1 ON system#boot DO Backlog Power5 1; Power6 1; Power7 1; Channel6 50; Channel7 75 ENDON // Enable PWM to 50% and 75%.
  Rule1 1 // Enable Rule1
  Backlog WebButton5 PWM1; WebButton6 PWM2; WebButton7 STNB // To rename a web button (optional)
• Run commands in the console to test the motor (you must first configure the GPIO!):
  ShutterMode 1 // Enabling "Shutter mode 1"
  ShutterRelay1 1 // for relay Relay1 and Relay2
  ShutterRelay2 3 // for relay Relay3 and Relay4
  Restart 1 // Restart Tasmota
  ShutterOpen1 // test CW motor1 rotation
  ShutterClose1 // test CWW motor1 rotation
  ShutterOpen2 // test CW motor2 rotation
  ShutterClose2 // test CWW motor2 rotation
  ShutterButton1 1 updown 0 // Assigns button#1 to act as an "up and down" button (1x press up, 2x press down) for Shutter#1
  ShutterButton2 2 updown 0 // Assigns button#2 to act as an "up and down" button (1x press up, 2x press down) for Shutter#2

ESP-01M Pin	GPIO	Component	Motor Signal
D2	04	PWM1	PWM1 motor1
D6	12	Relay1	CW motor1
D7	13	Relay2	CCW motor1
FL	09	Button1	Up/Down#1
D4	02	PWM1	PWM2 motor2
D7	13	Relay3	CW# motor2
D8	15	Relay4	CCW motor2
FL	10	Button2	Up/Down#2
D5	14	Relay5	Stnb

3. Wemos motor shield.

Video of the driver's work:

• https://youtu.be/gah3zCJPPUc
• https://youtu.be/8P2wTgeavdo

More information:

• https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1_mini_shield/motor.html

3.1 Using ONE motor.

How to use it:

1. You must add support for "WEMOS_MOTOR_V1" in my_user_config.h file.
2. Сonfigure the GPIO:

Wemos Pin	GPIO	Component	Motor Signal
D1	5	I2C SCL	---
D2	4	I2C SDA	---
D3	0	Relay1	CW motor1
D4	2	Relay2	Stop motor1
D5	14	Relay3	CCW motor1

If you did everything correctly, then in the console you should see this message:
00:00:00.062 I2C: WEMOS_MOTOR_V1 found at 0x30

3. Run commands in the console to test the motor (you must first configure the GPIO!):
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,1,80 // for CCW motor1 (80% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3 // for STOP motor1
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,2,80 // for CW motor1 (80% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,4 // for standby motor1 (optional)
   More information!
4. Use the rules to control the motor (optional):

• Rule1 // remove comments before using the rule!
  ON Power1#state=1 DO Backlog Power2 0; Power3 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,1,80; delay 55; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power1 0 ENDON // CW motor1, "delay 55" controls the opening (time 55 = 5.5 sec).
  ON Power2#state=1 DO Backlog Power1 0; Power3 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power2 0 ENDON // Stop motor1
  ON Power3#state=1 DO Backlog Power1 0; Power2 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,2,80; delay 55; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power3 0 ENDON //CCW motor1, "delay 55" controls the closing (time 55 = 5.5 sec).
• Rule1 1 // run rule1

5. Add "logic" to the control WEB buttons (optional):
   Backlog WebButton1 ⇈ WebButton2 Stop1; WebButton3 &#8650

3.2 Using DUAL motor.

How to use it:

1. You must add support for "WEMOS_MOTOR_V2" in my_user_config.h file.
2. Сonfigure the GPIO:

Wemos Pin	GPIO	Component	Motor Signal
D1	5	I2C SCL	---
D2	4	I2C SDA	---
D3	0	Relay1	CW motor1
D4	2	Relay2	Stop motor1
D5	14	Relay3	CCW motor1
D6	12	Relay4	CW motor2
D7	13	Relay5	Stop motor2
D8	15	Relay6	CCW motor2

If you did everything correctly, then in the console you should see this message:
00:00:00.062 I2C: WEMOS_MOTOR_V1 found at 0x30

3. Run commands in the console to test the motor1 (you must first configure the GPIO!):
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,1,75 // for CCW motor1 (75% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3 // for STOP motor1
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,2,75 // for CW motor1 (75% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,0,4 // for standby motor1 (optional)
   More information!
4. Run commands in the console to test the motor2 (you must first configure the GPIO!):
   driver44 SETMOTOR,1,1,50 // for CCW motor2 (50% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3 // for STOP motor2
   driver44 SETMOTOR,1,2,50 // for CW motor2 (50% duty - optional)
   driver44 SETMOTOR,1,4 // for standby motor2 (optional)
   More information!
5. Use the rules to control the motor1 and motor2 (optional):

• Rule1 // remove comments before using the rule!
  ON Power1#state=1 DO Backlog Power2 0; Power3 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,1,75; delay 69; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power1 0 ENDON // CW motor1, "delay 69" controls the opening (time 69 = 6.9 sec.)"
  ON Power2#state=1 DO Backlog Power1 0; Power3 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power2 0 ENDON // Stop motor1
  ON Power3#state=1 DO Backlog Power1 0; Power2 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,2,75; delay 69; driver44 SETMOTOR,0,3; Power3 0 ENDON // CCW motor1, "delay 69" controls the closing (time 69 = 6.9 sec).

• Rule1 1 // run rule1

• Rule2 // remove comments before using the rule!
  ON Power4#state=1 DO Backlog Power5 0; Power6 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,1,50; delay 77; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3; Power4 0 ENDON // CW motor2, "delay 77" controls the opening (time 77 = 7.7 sec).
  ON Power5#state=1 DO Backlog Power4 0; Power6 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3; Power5 0 ENDON // Stop motor2
  ON Power6#state=1 DO Backlog Power4 0; Power5 0; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3; delay 10; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,2,50; delay 77; driver44 SETMOTOR,1,3; Power6 0 ENDON // CCW motor2, "delay 77" controls the closing (time 77 = 7.7 sec).

• Rule2 1 // run rule2

6. Add "logic" to the control WEB buttons (optional):
   Backlog WebButton1 ⇈ WebButton2 Stop1; WebButton3 &#8650
Backlog WebButton4 ↺ WebButton5 Stop2; WebButton6 &#8635

Additional Information:

Note!!! :

"WEMOS MOTOR V1" requires a firmware update. Factory installed firmware has reliability issues like I2C bus stuck. The firmware requires regular USB2TTL.
More information!

WEMOS MOTOR Pin	GPIO	Component	USB2TTL
D1	5	RX	TX
D2	4	TX	RX
3V3	-	-	3V3
GND	-	-	GND

!!! And be sure to short-circuit the RTS and 3V pins together on "Wemos motor shield V1".

1. Download here for firmware "motor_shield.bin":

• https://cdn.hackaday.io/files/18439788894176/motor_shield.bin
  or
• https://github.com/TrDA-hab/Projects/blob/master/DC_motor/motor_shield.bin

2. Download "STM32Flash" from here:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/stm32flash/files/

3. Run these commands in the Windows console (use your COM port number!):
   stm32flash.exe COM4
stm32flash.exe -k COM4
stm32flash.exe -f -v -w motor_shield.bin COM4

!!! After finishing the firmware, disconnect all wires (including the 3V and RTS pin), connect the shield to the ESP device and it should work!

3.3 Using Wemos motor shield HR8833 Motor Shield (now no tested).

https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1_mini_shield/hr8833_motor.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003697301523.html

3.4 Using Wemos motor shield AT8870 Motor Shield (now no tested).

https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1_mini_shield/at8870_motor.html
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003800396010.html

Best regards,
TrDA.

[barbudor]

Nice to see your cool solutions back here 👍
C Новым Годом

[TrDA-hab]

Nice to see your cool solutions back here 👍
C Новым Годом

Thank you very much !

[Frogmore42]

Very nice write up, love all the pictures.

[TrDA-hab]

Very nice write up, love all the pictures.

I am very pleased thank you )

[vic42]

Your doc style is very unique. I like it!

[vic42]

Driver support for Wemos Motor Shield V2 is almost complete.
Currently beta testing.

[TrDA-hab]

The "V2" driver works great. I have updated the information in this article.

[modicon1]

Hi All. Can someone point me at a forum which discusses and uses a stepper motor/A4988 solution to blinds tilting, and using arendst
/Tasmota/shutters/blinds? Thanks.

[TrDA-hab]

Hi All. Can someone point me at a forum which discusses and uses a stepper motor/A4988 solution to blinds tilting, and using arendst
/Tasmota/shutters/blinds? Thanks.

https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Blinds-and-Shutters/
#10847

[barbudor]

If you want something more interactive, join us on Discord
https://discord.gg/Ks2Kzd4

[modicon1]

Thanks TrDA, I find that this link (https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Blinds-and-Shutters/
#10847) creates more questions for me rather than gives answers. It lacks information for stepper motors and shutters and does not provide a forum to ask questions.

I have tried Discord but have not yet gotten an answer.

Thanks to you and barbudor for your responses.

[TrDA-hab]

Thanks TrDA, I find that this link (https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Blinds-and-Shutters/
#10847) creates more questions for me rather than gives answers. It lacks information for stepper motors and shutters and does not provide a forum to ask questions.

I have tried Discord but have not yet gotten an answer.

Thanks to you and barbudor for your responses.

I answered you on Discord. All new issues are only on Discord!

[modicon1]

Got It. Thanks

[Obelix411]

Hi, is it possible to download the board layouts somewhere?

[dharvind]

Hi all. I was able to connect motor controller L298N and control it through a D1 mini. I have now a device (chain actuator) that comes with its own motor controller. Is there anyway to connect a D1 mini to it and control it through home automation (openhab). See attached the wiring schema of the motor controller.

[barbudor]

What are the brown/black/blue line ?
Are you looking to totally replace this by a Tasmotized controller or have Tasmota in parrallel ?

[dharvind]

The black brown blue lines are for the rain sensor and are optional.
I was thinking in the same line as an existing linear actuator I have :
Openhab - tasmotised D1 mini - L298N - linear actuator

In this case for the chain actuator maybe:
Openhab - tasmotised D1 mini - chain controller (the photo) - chain actuator
But not sure it's possible..

[barbudor]

If there is no external buttons on which you can connect relays from a tasmota to simulate press on the buttons, th ebest is probably to remove the controller and make a full tasmota solution.

[ozett]

i tried to use the TB6612 example with one motor,
but on tasmota 11.1.x the "dimmer"-CMD does not exitst anymore.
can you confirm this? Whats the workaround/update?

[sfromis]

The Dimmer command is still very much present in current Tasmota, but only becomes active when your hardware is configured with features where Dimmer makes sense, typically PWM pins. Did you configure that?.

[ozett]

only becomes active when your hardware is configured with features where Dimmer makes sense, typically PWM pins. Did you configure that?.

i followed this manual above here, for the dc-motors. did not recognize what command configures PMM pins and acitvates dimmer.
i used firmware from webinstaller. what am i missing?

the manual above has no further commands for configuring pwm-pins, ???

[barbudor]

You saw the screen shot, so obviously you should have picked up where in the GUI you should configure GPIO for PWM (here gpio 15 set as PWM_1)
Reading this article doesn't free you from reading general Tasmota documentation

[barbudor]

If you installed from the web installer, then you didn't followed the instructions to compile your own build with shutter support

[ozett]

you should have picked up where in the GUI you should configure GPIO for PWM (here gpio 15 set as PWM_1)

my wemos-device is configured with GPI15 as PWM pin.
exactly like in the screenshot of the instructions.
but dimmer-cmd failed. what else is missing?
i dont think that i have to compile all with that my_user_config.h and the actual ver11 webinstaller has is already.

If you installed from the web installer, then you didn't followed the instructions to compile your own build with shutter support

it think the shutter support is included in the web-installer,
i flashed with the webinstaller an than i could use SetOption80 and afterwards also change shuttermodes.
or is anything else missing?
Only a separate PWM-Control with the "Dimmer"-cmd seemed missing.
but maybe that completly changed from firmware 9.x to 11.x ?

setting option80 worked after flashing:

dont know, if changing of my_user_config.h is necessary to activate shutter-support and for using the "Dimmer-Cmd"
maybe the instructions are outdated in this regard?

look like shutter-support is included in the tastmota.bin from the webinstaller.

so to make use of the dimmer-cmd for setting the PWM manually there must is something else to configure....???

[ozett]

there must be something wrong with the instructions,
or something has changed from firmware 9.x to 11.x

to use the dimmer-cmd for pwm-control with one-motor an TB6612

[ozett]

Got it working.
reset the whole module to defaults,

next steps:
configured first relays 1-2,
restart
configured relay 3 and pwm.
restart

on console:
SetOption80 1
ShutterMode 1 // Enabling "Shutter mode 1"
Important: de-activate standby of motordriver with: "Power3 on"
(or otherwise nothing happens)
now "dimmer 75" is activated...

[codystoica]

Hello
I tried to connect LOLIN I2C dual motor driver shield based on HR8833 to D1 mini but it does not recognize it as a device
When I run i2cscan, a device at address 0x30 is detected, but it does not recognize it. Can you help me with this problem, what could I do?
https://github.com/wemos/LOLIN_I2C_MOTOR_Library

[barbudor]

Has of today I only see support for the V1 shield with TB6612FNG
No support for HR8833

@vic42 It looks like you were working on a driver for the shield V2
Did you completed it ?

[vic42]

Yes, I completed the work on the V2 motor shield and integrated it into the existing Wemos Motor Shield V1 driver code, at the time when TrDA wrote this article.

I'm not aware of a hardware revision containing a different motor driver chip. However, if the I2C interface specification has not changed it should still be supported by the V2 driver, regardless.

The genuine Lolin Wemos Motor Shield V2 is supported. However, you have to set the correct set of #defines in your build to enable this specific flavor of the driver (USE_I2C, USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1, WEMOS_MOTOR_V2).

It is a bit unfortunate that the initial driver code includes "V1" explicitly, both in its name and enabling statement.

[codystoica]

I wrote tasmota custom firmware on my D1 mini with i2c LOLIN Motor Shield and indeed it appears when boots 00:00:00.069 I2C: WEMOS_MOTOR_V1 found at 0x30.
But I honestly don't understand how I can add support for "WEMOS_MOTOR_V2" because it doesn't appear in my_user_config.h file

[vic42]

The documentation at https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Compile-your-build/ explicitly states Do not modify my_user_config.h and instead enter your additions and changes to user_config_override.h. The statement for selecting the V2 driver is

#define WEMOS_MOTOR_V2

Adding this line will select the V2 driver code.

You may still need the statements

#ifndef USE_I2C
#define USE_I2C
#endif
#ifndef USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#define USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#endif

[codystoica]

Thank you very much!!!!

[vic42]

Please report back what kind of hardware you tried and whether it worked, If not already documented here.
Thanks!

[codystoica]

I used Wemos D1 mini with LOLIN motor shield HR8833 with two Micro Metal Gear DC N20 Motors.

After I compiled the firmware with the options for WEMOS_MOTOR_V2 everything works as it should

add support for "WEMOS_MOTOR_V2" in user_config_override.h file.

#define WEMOS_MOTOR_V2

#ifndef USE_I2C
#define USE_I2C
#endif

#ifndef USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#define USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#endif

All driver commands have been successfully tested:
Command format:

• driver44 ,,{,}
• command:
• RESET - reset a motor shield
• SETMOTOR - set motor state
• motor:
• 0 - motor A
• 1 - motor B
• 2 - both motors (V2 only)
• direction:
• 0 - short break
• 1 - CCW
• 2 - CW
• 3 - stop
• 4 - standby
• duty (optional):
• 0 - 100% (100% by default)

Now I will integrate the project in Domoticz to control two Venetian EU Blinds

[barbudor]

Great to see another successful Tasmota project

[vic42]

Interesting to see that it works with HR8833 shields. I didn't even have such board on hand when i wrote the driver. Seems like they finally settled on some kind of API standard.

[NicBout]

Hi there, has anyone tested the driver against a memos motor shield V3 (the AT8870 version)? Should the driver work in theory or would it need to be adapted?
Thanks!

[NicBout]

I got a few boards in and can report that the driver works with the Wemos AT8870 Motor Shield, using the firmware configuration outlined in section 3.2 of the original post.

Here is the configuration I used in my user_config_override.h to generate the tasiota firmware.

#define WEMOS_MOTOR_V2

#ifndef USE_I2C
#define USE_I2C
#endif

#ifndef USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#define USE_WEMOS_MOTOR_V1
#define WEMOS_MOTOR_V1_ADDR 0x30
#define WEMOS_MOTOR_V1_FREQ 1000
#endif

[gbot20]

Has any one got a setup for using a BTS7960 H-Bridge motor driver?
It uses 2x PWM pins to drive the motor. Pulsing PWM1 moves the motor in one direction and PWM2 in the other direction.

Even better if it was possible to do an Acceleration at the start.

Thanks

[Andre0407]

Hi,
I am trying to control 5 separate PWM outputs via MQTT using ioBroker.
If only one output is set up, all parameters are displayed. Since I don't want to control a light, the SetOption68 1 command in Tasmota has helped me a lot. However, light parameters are still sent via MQTT.
Can anyone help me so that I get the parameters "On / Off" and "Dimmer" for each PWM output?

[sfromis]

Using SetOption68 is just another type of light; separate channels. To use PWM for other purposes, I'd recommend SetOption15 for "basic PWM control", after which you can control each channel using the PWM command instead of Dimmer. And then, say, PWM2 0 means powering off. Do note that you get no sliders on the Tasmota front page.

[TimelessNL]

Hi,

Interesting post, and allot of information to go through.

I do have a question about the TB6612FNG though. I'm designing a PCB that is going to use the TB6612FNG to drive 12v 2-wire LED lights, as is mostly seen in Christmas lights in which 2 stings of LED's have alternating polarities. However does anyone know if the PWM pins can be left HIGH and directly applying PWM to the IN1 and IN2 would work to pulse the corresponding output? If so I could use the tasmota h-bridge light or esphome h-bridge light integration . I came across this post, and it seems that applying PWM to the IN1 and IN2 directly could work?

I've used the DRV8833 on 5v LEDs before, which worked great as a h-bridge light but it didn't have dedicated PWM pin per channel, but the DRV8833 is not able to run at 12v so I'm looking for a mosfet based alternative that is able to run on 12v like the TB6612FNG.

Thanks in advance 👍