Source: https://mokxi.com/learn/motor-control-course Updated: 2026-11-11 Embedded track Motor control # A motor control course: DC, servo, stepper and encoder Speed and direction on a driver, the H bridge inside it, angles on a servo, STEP and DIR on an A4988, and an encoder that measures what really happened. Free In your browser 2 courses, 15 lessons, about 10 hours Start free A DC motor on a driver: speed and direction See the course Overview ## How you will learn it A motor is the point where code meets the physical world, and each kind needs a different approach. DC motors need a driver and PWM, servos want an angle, steppers move in counted steps, and an encoder tells you whether any of it worked. Motors and motion covers all four on a simulated Uno and ends with a robot car that avoids walls and follows lines. Every wire and every pulse is visible, so you can see what the driver is doing. Outcomes ## What you will learn - Drive a DC motor through a driver with PWM speed and direction. - Explain the H bridge and why the motor needs one. - Position a servo and step a stepper with an A4988. - Measure real motion with an encoder and close the loop. Your route ## The courses and lessons to take Every lesson opens in the editor right away, signed in or not, and the simulator checks each step. - Step 1 · 7 lessons · 4 h ### Motors and motion The whole course. - A DC motor on a driver: speed and direction Two gear motors on an L298N: why a pin cannot run a motor, two inputs for direction, PWM on the enable for speed, and the volts a bipolar driver keeps for itself. - Inside the driver: the H bridge Four switches around a motor make it go both ways. An L293D on a breadboard: the truth table, braking against coasting, back EMF, and why half the PWM is not half the speed. - A servo: an angle, not a speed A hobby servo is a motor, a gearbox, a potentiometer and a control loop in one box. Drive it with a pulse width, follow a slider, and learn why it needs its own power. - A stepper on an A4988: STEP and DIR A NEMA 17 moves in exact steps with no sensor at all. Two wires from the Uno, microstepping from three pins, the current limit you set with a screwdriver, and how a stepper misses steps. - An encoder: measure what the motor really did A gear motor with a Hall encoder on an L9110S pumps an exact dose: count pulses on an interrupt, work out speed from them, and slow down before the mark so it stops on it. Every lesson in the course - Step 2 · 8 lessons · 6 h ### Build a claw machine A build to finish with: steppers in a real claw machine. Build a real arcade claw machine piece by piece, from one stepper motor to coins, a clock, a win sensor, lights and sound. Every lesson in the course Keep going ## Guides and tools on the same subject Guide ### Stepper motor wiring Open it Guide ### Arduino A4988 and NEMA 17 Open it Guide ### Arduino L298N motor driver Open it Track ### Embedded track Arduino, ESP32, Raspberry Pi Pico and STM32: pins, timing, buses, motors, WiFi, registers and debugging, every lesson checked on a simulated board. See the whole track Questions ## Questions people ask Can I connect a motor straight to an Arduino pin? No. A pin can only supply a few tens of milliamps, and a motor needs far more and kicks back when it stops. A driver or a transistor sits between them, which the first lesson explains. What is the difference between a servo and a stepper? A servo goes to an angle you ask for and holds it. A stepper turns a counted number of steps, which suits positioning over many turns, like a 3D printer axis. Which stepper driver does the course use? The A4988 with STEP and DIR, the same driver used on many 3D printers and CNC machines.