These assumes you are following the same Fritzing diagram above. Here’s a table that summarizes the pins and corresponding motor direction.

To reverse the direction, reverse the pulses to IN1 and IN2. If you want the left motor to rotate in one direction, apply a high pulse to IN1 and a low pulse to IN2. Here is a wiring diagram for connecting two DC motors to the L298N driver board. Speed control for Motor A and Motor B is achieved via PWM on these pins. Remove these jumpers if you are using DC motors and keep it for stepper motors. There are also two other jumpers on the board, as shown. Specifically, motor A connects to terminals 1 and 2 while Motor B connects to terminals 3 and 4. The motor terminals connect to Motor Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4. You have Motor A inputs and Motor B inputs. This means the +5V terminal is not for powering the board but for connecting a device, say Arduino, that needs a 5V source. When the +12V jumper is attached, the on-board voltage regulator is now enabled, and you can source +5V from the +5V terminal. Important note: remove the +12V jumper shown if you are using powers higher than +12V. More information about the L298N IC is found on its datasheet: This means you can power high voltage motors while controlling them with microcontrollers.

The most notable feature here is its high power supply although its input pins follow lower voltage levels. The diagram above shows an example diagram for using the L298N to drive one DC motor. To drive the motor counter clockwise, the pin Input 1 is low while the pin Input 2 is high. To drive a motor to a direction, say, clockwise, the pin Input 1 must be high while the pin Input 2 must be low. The Enable A pin must be high to turn on the motor. For example, if a motor is using channel A, its terminals must be connected to pins Out 1 and Out 2. This IC drives two motors through two channels, A and B. It comes in two IC packages: MultiWatt15 and PowerSO20. The L298N is an integrated circuit that follows the H-bridge concept. This is very significant especially when using an Arduino board where the 5V power source is simply not enough for two DC motors.

The other benefit of using an H-bridge is that you can provide a separate power supply to the motors.

L298n motor driver schematic