Motor Drives & Control
Curated: learn how a microcontroller actually drives a motor — the driver, the H-bridge for direction, and PWM for speed — from a top free course, then prove it in Forge and get certified. Extends the Power track from static loads to spinning ones.
Controlling DC Motors with the L298N H-Bridge and Arduino
DroneBot Workshop · video · ~1h · Free · English
Why we picked it: The single most-referenced beginner motor-drives tutorial online — it is the top-ranked motor-control course on Class Central and comes from DroneBot Workshop, one of the most-subscribed maker channels (~1.6M subscribers, this video with millions of views). It teaches the exact mechanism the check tests: a motor never hangs off a pin — it needs a driver. You watch an H-bridge reverse a motor's direction and a PWM signal set its speed, on a real Arduino, with the wiring and code shown end to end.
- why a motor needs a driver, not a bare MCU pin (current + isolation)
- the H-bridge — switching voltage polarity to reverse direction
- PWM speed control (why it beats dropping the voltage — it keeps torque)
- the L298N dual H-bridge module: EN pins (speed) vs IN pins (direction)
- separate motor power vs logic power, and common ground
- back-EMF and the flyback diodes/caps that protect the circuit
- driving two DC motors (e.g. a robot's left/right wheels)
- the Arduino sketch: analogWrite for speed, digitalWrite for direction
Study guide
Open the study guide →1 study section · what to focus on + prove it in Forge, then take the check.
Forge practical
Build it in Forge Design · 5 checks · auto-verified from your design
Start the practical →