This minishield controls two 0.5A motors, 3 to 5.5V, 10 Ohm coil resistance. It takes no space and blocks only the pins it needs. In addition, there is a connector for a Bluetooth module in case you think building a small robot controlled by your smartphone.

Bicolor LEDs shows the excitation on the motors, but the motors will run only if the switch is on. This is great while debugging the software.

The MsMot size is only 14x55mm. You have the choice to solder straight or bent connectors. With bent connectors, you hardly see the MsMot, and you have all the space for a small breadboard. Use female connectors with long pins if you need to add a traditional shield that will use the free pins.

The MsMot is connected to the 4 usual Arduino pins 4,5,6,7 to control the motor, with PWM on pin 5 and 6. Motor drivers are the Si9986, 3 to 6V, 1A max, 300 mA with only 0.2V loss (compare with the L293!). For the power, MsMot takes the Gnd from the Gnd pin next to pin13. The last pin is the Aref signal nobody use. That pin can be connected to +5V without any arm. Add a wire, and do it below your arduino board, it is very convenient to have a +5V on that side of the board. This is one of the advantage of the Tindie Diduino2.

The two PWM channels of pins 5 and 6 can provide variable speed in both directions , you just need to know the trick, explained on http://www.didel.com/robots/MotorControl.pdf. But remember PFM is a must if you want to move at slow and very slow speeds, see https://www.didel.com/PFMversusPWMforRobots.pdf.

Last, but not the least, you can use the MsMot to experiment on a breadboard.