Source: https://mokxi.com/parts/tb6612 Updated: 2026-11-10 Part # Motor driver, TB6612FNG Two MOSFET H bridges for two motors. STBY must be high, and PWM low is a brake. See every part - 16 pins - In 4 projects - In 2 lessons Drawn live by the editor's own code, at the size you see it. At a glance ## The Motor driver, TB6612FNG in brief What it is, and where it sits on the bench. The TB6612FNG is a dual H-bridge on a small breakout, the driver in the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit. Its bridges are MOSFETs with about 0.25 ohm a side, half a volt across a bridge at one amp where an L293D loses more than two, and its logic runs from 2.7 to 5.5 volts, so an ESP32 or Pico can drive it directly. Each channel takes a PWM pin and two direction pins, AIN1 and AIN2 for motor A, while VM takes a separate 2.5 to 13.5 volt motor supply with the grounds joined. Mokxi follows Toshiba’s truth table row for row, including the row people miss: PWM low is a short brake, not a coast, so analogWrite() alternates driving and braking. Every input has a 200 kilohm pull-down inside, so an unwired STBY holds the whole chip in standby, the commonest reason a real board does nothing. With a battery on VM the bridge joins the analog solve and the pack sags under the motors. The SparkFun_TB6612 library’s drive() and brake() calls compile. The current limits, thermal shutdown and flyback diodes are not modeled. Family Outputs Pins 16 Pins ## 16 pins Named as the editor names them, so a wire lands where you expect it. Pin What it does PWMA Each channel's speed: analogWrite here. AIN2 Channel A's direction. AIN1 Channel A's direction. STBY Must be HIGH, or both channels are off. BIN1 Channel B's direction. BIN2 Channel B's direction. PWMB Each channel's speed: analogWrite here. GND1 Three grounds, strapped together on the board. VM Motor supply, 2.5 V to 13.5 V (15 V absolute maximum). VCC Logic supply, 2.7 V to 5.5 V. GND2 Three grounds, strapped together on the board. AO1 Motor A. AO2 Motor A. BO2 Motor B. BO1 Motor B. GND3 Three grounds, strapped together on the board. How to use it ## How to use the TB6612FNG with an Arduino The robot drive example wires channel A to pins 2 and 4 for direction and pin 5 for speed, channel B to pins 7, 8 and 6, and STBY to pin 9. VCC takes the Uno’s 5 volts, VM takes a four-AA pack, and the GND pins join both. With SparkFun_TB6612.h, a Motor takes AIN1, AIN2, PWMA, an offset of 1 or -1 and STBY, and drive() takes -255 to 255. brake() shorts the motor and stops it hard, while standby() pulls STBY low and lets both motors coast. If nothing moves at all, check STBY first: left unwired, the chip’s own pull-down holds it in standby. Watch the pack’s readout as the motors start, since the bridge draws its current from VM. Part pin Board pin PWMA Pin 5 AIN1 Pin 2 AIN2 Pin 4 STBY Pin 9 BIN1 Pin 7 BIN2 Pin 8 PWMB Pin 6 VCC 5 V VM Battery pack red lead GND GND and the pack’s black lead Its logic runs from 2.7 to 5.5 volts, so an ESP32 or a Pico can drive the inputs directly with VCC on 3.3 volts. Click to open it in the editor This is the simulator itself, running here. Click anything to open it in the editor. Open this project in the editor Read the full tutorial Two motors with the SparkFun library How it is modeled ## What is true about the Motor driver, TB6612FNG, here In its help article’s own words: what the simulation gets right, and where it stops. ### Modeled From Toshiba's datasheet: The truth table, row for row, including the brake on PWM low. Internal pull-downs. Every input has 200 k to ground inside, so an unwired STBY reads LOW and the chip does nothing at all. That is the first fault on every forum thread about this board. The volts it keeps. 0.5 V at 1 A across the two transistors of a bridge, which is 0.25 ohm a side. Where the current comes from. With a battery or a bench supply on VM, the bridge is part of the analog solve, so the motors' current comes out of the motor rail and a battery sags under it. The supplies. Under 2.7 V of logic, under 2.5 V of motor supply or over the 15 V absolute maximum, the outputs are dead. ### Not modeled The 1.2 A average and 3.2 A peak current limits and the thermal shutdown behind them, the dead time, the 100 kHz PWM ceiling, and the flyback diodes. From TB6612FNG motor driver, in full. Projects ## See the Motor driver, TB6612FNG in a project 4 built-in projects use it. Each opens in the editor, already wired. Lessons ## Where it turns up in a lesson 2 lessons place it in their own circuits. ### Learn articles 2 lessons - Arduino Line Follower Robot: Code and Circuit - Arduino TB6612FNG: Wiring, Library and Code Boards ## The boards it is shown on This board has a built-in project with the Motor driver, TB6612FNG in it. - Arduino Uno R3 Libraries ## Arduino libraries for the Motor driver, TB6612FNG Built in, so the sketch compiles with nothing to install. Each page has the calls, the wiring and an example to run. - Adafruit Motor Shield V2 Library More parts ## The rest of the bench Every one of these is drawn and simulated the same way. Full-size breadboard A real 0.1 inch grid with the rails and the center channel, 63 columns wide. Jumper wires Drag from any pin or hole to any other. Corners snap, and you can drag them. Power A supply rail at the voltage you choose. Ground The other end of every circuit. LED Lights when current flows. Five colors, and the brightness is what your eye would see. Filament lamp A tungsten bulb in a holder: an inrush when it is switched on cold, tens of milliseconds to warm up, and dim on half its voltage. Resistor Any value you like, with the color bands drawn to match. ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 A RISC-V board that runs your firmware at 160 MHz on the real memory map. Pushbutton A 12 mm tactile switch. Hold it while the simulation runs. Raspberry Pi Pico The RP2040 board on our own Cortex-M0+ core. Pick a program and press Run. Raspberry Pi Pico W Raspberry Pi Pico W (RP2040). The same board and the same pinout as a Pico, with the CYW43439 on it. The WiFi is simulated (no radio; real internet through the Cloud panel’s switch), and the on-board LED, which hangs off that chip rather than off GP25, is driven through the same path. Everything else is the Pico. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Raspberry Pi 4 Model B: the 40-pin header, driven by main.py with RPi.GPIO or gpiozero. See every part ## Wire up the Motor driver, TB6612FNG Open the editor and push it into the breadboard. It is free, and it runs on your own machine. Start building free Open the editor