18v15 Pololu Motor Driver with actuator

I was wondering if this looks correct before I hook it up to the battery.

overview:
flickr.com/photos/56201932@N … otostream/
close up:
flickr.com/photos/56201932@N … otostream/

The driver GND is to GND on the breadboard
PWM on driver is to 5V(out) on driver
on the other side:
GND on driver to - post on 12V battery
V+ on driver to + post on the 12V battery
OUTA and OUTB are to the actuator

Does this look correct?

Hello.

I don’t understand the purpose of the breadboard. Why are you connecting the controller ground to the ground of an unused breadboard? Also, you should not leave the dir pin floating (it does not have a default value and could cause the outputs to rapidly switch direction). I recommend you connect the DIR pin to ground. Other than that, your connections sound ok to me (it’s not very easy to see what’s going on in the pictures, but I didn’t see anything wrong).

- Ben

I was going to use an arduino with it.

gnd to gnd on digital side of the arduino
dir to digital 7 on arduino
pwm to digital 3 on the arduino

sound right?

Those connections sound find (I don’t know offhand which Arduino pins are PWM outputs). I suggest you make those connections before you connect power and write a simple sketch to control the voltages on the DIR and PWM pins. That way, you’ll be less likely to accidentally connect them to something that could destroy the board.

- Ben