User Manual

of pins highlighted in darker red should not be populated if you are using this board with an
older Arduino that does not support these additional pins). Please make sure you solder the
appropriate headers for your particular Arduino!
2. Motor and power connections: The six large holes/twelve small holes on the right side
of the board, highlighted in yellow in the above diagram, are the motor outputs and power
inputs. You can optionally solder the included 5mm-pitch terminal blocks to the six large holes
to enable temporary motor and motor power connections, or you can break off a 12×1 section
of the included 0.1″ header strip and solder it into the smaller through-holes that border the
six large motor and motor power pads. Note, however, that the terminal blocks are only
rated for 16 A, and each header pin pair is only rated for a combined 6 A, so for higher-
current applications, thick wires with high-current connectors [https://www.pololu.com/product/
925] should be soldered directly to the board. The smaller holes are intended only for 0.1″
header pins, not for the terminal blocks!
3. Arduino power jumper: If you want the option of powering your Arduino and motor shield
from the same source, you can solder a 2×1 piece of the included 0.1″ male header strip
to the pins highlighted in orange in the above picture. Shorting across these pins with the
included shorting block will connect the shield power to the Arduino’s VIN pin. You should not
use this to power the shield from the Arduino as this connection is not designed to handle
high currents, and you must never supply power to the Arduino’s VIN pin or power jack while
this shorting block is in place, because it will create a short between the shield power supply
and the Arduino power supply and will likely permanently damage something.
4. Additional power capacitor: The motor driver shield includes three pre-installed 47 uF
electrolytic power capacitors, and there is space—highlighted in blue in the above picture—to
add an additional capacitor (e.g. to compensate for long power wires or increase stability of
the power supply). An additional power capacitor is usually not necessary, and no additional
capacitors are included with this shield.
The other through-holes on the shield are used for more advanced things like customizing the Arduino
Pololu Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield User’s Guide © 2001–2017 Pololu Corporation
3. Getting Started with an Arduino Page 9 of 35