I have a FEZ Panda board and am using the DC Motor Shield with it. When I reboot the board the DC Motor shield drives my motor with full power until it gets to the point where it enters my code and I can initialize it. Is there any way to make it default to the off state during boot? It is currently driving my motor too far and causing ware on my gears.
What does your init string look like on the digital outs? Do you set the pins false when your program finishes before you reset?
The pins have pull up on power up by default which I am assuming is turning your motors on. The fix is easy, Add a ~1K resistor from the PWM pin you are using to ground
Hey THANKS. Adding the resistor did the trick.
I had the same issue but never found this page! :
I had to find the solution. Same as yours: 27k pull-down did the job.
What I would like to say here is: there is a lot of answers in this forum, but not so easy to find. ???
bool b_statement = true; 
Just enter “Motor Shield” in the search box … lots of hits.
Same for other topics.
The tip with the resistor could well be added to the beginner’s guide.
Is that what you guys are suggesting?