Leegoal L298N Stepper Motor Driver Controller Board Module

I used three of these in various projects. One of them was a contraption for the Maker Faire, and another was to build a homemade plotter. It worked quite well in all uses. In all cases, I was controlling salvaged stepper motors that didn't demand too much amperage. But, they handle more amps than other basic stepper motor drivers that you can build.For my purposes, I wish there had been some easier way to connect the input and enable pins to the outside world. They provide six pins for these. The first row is a pair of enable pins with jumpers to each, but practically speaking, it's better to control those enables from a logic board. The second row is for the A, B, C, and D motor inputs. All these are male pins expecting a female shrouded header, so I found myself having to cobble something together for each one. Fortunately, I had a salvage store nearby, but were it not for that, I'd be spending $$ on cables alone.For more complicated projects, I've stopped using these, and instead I've gone to Polulus.

It's not the best piece of hardware but the board is actually reasonably well designed. It's compact and although the board does not make it clear operates at drive voltages lower than 12V. I am running two steppers at 5V with no issues. The jumper to remove the linear regulator is a nice to have feature.The jumpers for the the enable lines also make it possible to directly wire normally closed limit switches to halt stepper movement if a limit is hit. It would have been nice for them to put debounce capacitors on these inputs though.

This is a great L298N board that seems to be well assembled. What I got was slightly different than as pictured because it has an additional 6-pin 2mm JST plug-in output connector (presumably for stepper motors equipped with a mating cable). The brass standoffs are pre-assembled onto the board as shown.All terminals and headers are clearly labeled so you should have no problem figuring it out. Use the L298N data sheet and the plentiful references on the web to get yourself started. All the L298N inputs are available on a 4 x 2 0.1" header. The enable inputs on the header are conveniently connected to +5V with jumper blocks. If you need to use the enables, for example with PWM, just pull the jumper blocks off the header. All in all, a nice board at a very good price.

the major complaint is that the board does not come with a connection diagram. the manufacturer really should make one.design flaws. #1 pins 1 and 15 are for sense resistor to limit current to the motor. these are wired to ground and eliminate any use of sense resistors. a jumper would bring the pins out so the user could connect them.design flaw #2: the data sheet says the manufacture REQUIRES a 100nF cap between pin 4 and gnd and pin 9 and gnd. again, there is no provision for these to be added.design flaw #3: the input requires a connection to gnd, but only has 4 pins (inputs 0-3) and one must bring a separate wire for gnd. there is room on the board, they just did not run the trace or put in the hole.the good: the board appears to be well made. it is well labeled. they designer put in LED's to indicate signals. praise goes to the stand-off's that are supplied.I would NOT recommend. however, if you can live with the flaws, the unit is small and might work well for your application.

Upon close inspection I noticed that the item received was not as pictured in the order. The board is RED (not green or blue) and some of the components are of different values and even a push-switch is missing. I don't know that the differences in components would have an impact in functionality and I hope it doesn't however I believe that the advertisement should be more accurate. There were no instructions/diagrams with the package so it is either assume you know what you are buying or know how to search the web for the technical information.

Finding info on the board is pretty difficult, however you can get info on the chip and try to wire it up that way. If your new to electronics or motor controllers i would recommend getting a better documented breakout.

im having trouble finding documentation for this specific board. that would be pretty useful. I haven't found places to contact seller about the documentation. I'm resorting to L298 datasheet. I may be willing to upgrade this review if I get it working.

Comes with no documentation. I bought from seller 365buying. Works fine. Didn't come with corner standoffs as shown in picture. Also didn't come with 5-pin stepper motor connector, like some other versions of this board do. Gooogle L298N to get docs.