Vehicle is has fully functional drive and steering and is able to be controlled remotely; however I am only getting an output of between 3 - 3.4 volts to the wheels. I am looking at other power options to connect to the 18V Vin on the motorshield
Very Cool little robot you have there Ian! How are you powering it? I can see a 9 volt battery. 9 Volts batteries can get pulled down by power hungry DC motors (They're really only AAAA batteries inside). That might be why you're only seeing 3 volts. You might be better off with a 4 pack of AA batteries, or even a 2 cell LiPo pack (7.4 volts)/
Thank you for your insight, I have been looking at different battery packs, but am also confused on which input to use. There is a VIN: Ult 18V input directly on the motor shield. So I'm wondering whether to use that in tandem with the regular arduino VIN or just one or the other.