Hello,
Thanks in advance. This is the circuit I am working on:

In the breadboard following to the letter with none of the
base setup. I simply take the leads from the base of tip42
on the right and, the base of tip41 on the left and put them
together to make them ready for me to apply 5V. the motor
is already running?I have not even put the voltage to it yet.
Same thing on the other side. Tried pulling them down to
ground and, they did not seem to like that. the motor stopped
then lurched, repeat. Im guessing im doing something retarded.
First retarded thing I normally do is swear I have it wired
correctly then find out in fact I did not. However I can do an
H-Bridge in my sleep now from messing up so many times.
Kind of lost so I posted.

Readings of tip42 left and right: 12v?
Readings off tip41 left and right 0V.

Guess I see why the motor is turning. Why do I have 12V
@ both tip42's?

 

If you have constructed the circuit as shown, including the BC338's, then you shouldn't be connecting TIP41/42 base to anything.

 

Hello,

Perhaps the circuit on the follwing page is an idea for you:
http://www.bobblick.com/techref/projects/hbridge/hbridge.html

Bertus

 

nothing is hooked up to any of the base pins. maybe i did not explain that well enough

 

I hooked up the rest of the circuit it does nothing as I anticipated. looks to me like the bc338's are only going to trigger one side or the other insdead of in a criss cross. However as stated im trying to simply add 5V to trigger. I am criss crossing when i do this. Still the same thing why would I have 12V at the base of the top two tip's

 

I hooked up the rest of the circuit it does nothing as I anticipated. looks to me like the bc338's are only going to trigger one side or the other insdead of in a criss cross. However as stated im trying to simply add 5V to trigger. I am criss crossing when i do this. Still the same thing why would I have 12V at the base of the top two tip's

With nothing hooked up both TIP42's should have 12 volts on their base and emitter and should be off. The motor should not turn.
The bases of the TIP41s should be ground and they should also be off.
If that's good, tie point A to +5v. The base of the left TIP41 should then be about +.8 - It will be on, and the left TIP 42 about 11.3 volts and it should be on.
The other side should still be off.
If you wired it like the picture you don't need to criss cross anything else.