Buttons

Spin two DC motors, step one bi-polar or uni-polar stepper, or fire off two solenoids with 1.2A per channel using the TB6612. We really like these dual H-bridges, so if you want to control motors without a shield or HAT these are easy to include on any solderless breadboard or perma-proto.

The TB6612 has be soldered onto a breakout board for you here, with a polarity protection FET on the motor voltage input and a pullup on the "standby" enable pin. Each breakout chip contains two full H-bridges (four half H-bridges). That means you can drive 2-4 solenoids (only two can be active at a time, on opposite bridges), two DC motors bi-directionally, or one stepper motor. Just make sure they're good for 1.2 Amp or less of current, since that's the limit of this chip. They do handle a peak of 3A but that's just for a short amount of time, like 20 milliseconds. What we like most about this particular driver is that it comes with built in kick-back diodes internally so you don't have to worry about the inductive kick damaging your project or driver.