1. Do not share user accounts! Any account that is shared by another person will be blocked and closed. This means: we will close not only the account that is shared, but also the main account of the user who uses another person's account. We have the ability to detect account sharing, so please do not try to cheat the system. This action will take place on 04/18/2023. Read all forum rules.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. For downloading SimTools plugins you need a Download Package. Get it with virtual coins that you receive for forum activity or Buy Download Package - We have a zero Spam tolerance so read our forum rules first.

    Buy Now a Download Plan!
  3. Do not try to cheat our system and do not post an unnecessary amount of useless posts only to earn credits here. We have a zero spam tolerance policy and this will cause a ban of your user account. Otherwise we wish you a pleasant stay here! Read the forum rules
  4. We have a few rules which you need to read and accept before posting anything here! Following these rules will keep the forum clean and your stay pleasant. Do not follow these rules can lead to permanent exclusion from this website: Read the forum rules.
    Are you a company? Read our company rules

Tutorial SMC3 Arduino 3DOF Motor Driver and Windows Utilities

Discussion in 'SimTools compatible interfaces' started by RufusDufus, Dec 1, 2013.

  1. dedas

    dedas Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2012
    Messages:
    115
    Occupation:
    IT Manager
    Location:
    Netherlands
    Balance:
    - 26Coins
    Ratings:
    +81 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, Arduino
    No Windows 7 enterprise edition NL (Dutch).
    I'll try the Jymä tip and change the language to English (i'll get back on that) :rolleyes:
  2. dedas

    dedas Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2012
    Messages:
    115
    Occupation:
    IT Manager
    Location:
    Netherlands
    Balance:
    - 26Coins
    Ratings:
    +81 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, Arduino
    Your Good!!! i'ts working now!!!:grin
    Movement of the motors is smooth, great job Jymä. Changing my time format from Dutch (nederlands) to English(US) made it work.:D
    • Like Like x 1
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2014
  3. RufusDufus

    RufusDufus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2013
    Messages:
    681
    Location:
    Adelaide Australia
    Balance:
    15,644Coins
    Ratings:
    +1,009 / 8 / -1
    @Jymä, @dedas, @Thread, and others with jerky motion...

    Thanks to Jymä we have done some investigation and confirmed the root cause of the windows Date/Time/Language setting issue to the motion smoothness.

    In short any windows language localisations that display numbers using a comma as the decimal place will have an issue.

    The short term fix is to use Jymä's fix to change the windows Date/Time format to English (refer posts above) in control panel.
    • Like Like x 1
  4. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    Thanks, in XP it is still buggy, is there a chance to have him look at it?
  5. yobuddy

    yobuddy Well-Known Member Staff Member Moderator SimAxe Beta Tester SimTools Developer Gold Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2007
    Messages:
    5,161
    Occupation:
    Computer Technician
    Location:
    Portland, Oregon - USA
    Balance:
    48,163Coins
    Ratings:
    +5,036 / 16 / -0
    This will be all fixed in the next release...

    thanks! @RufusDufus :thumbs
  6. RufusDufus

    RufusDufus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2013
    Messages:
    681
    Location:
    Adelaide Australia
    Balance:
    15,644Coins
    Ratings:
    +1,009 / 8 / -1
    Are you using XP on one computer for Simtools game engine and running the game on another computer?

    If so I would very much expect that both computers need to be set to English date/time and Simtools restarted on both after the change. Can you confirm if that works?
  7. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    Thanks for the continous support, it is a pro program.
    At the moment i am building my mechanics, and testing electronics,
    game engine works fine on win8, and buggy on XP. [the slider movement is rightaway buggy, so the game would be]
    At the moment have not even downloaded the AC plugin. [and yes, planning to use both machines, because of the CPU bottleneck]
    By the way, AC has released a RC1.0.3 version, do the AC plugin work with that?
  8. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    OOps i forgot to mention that the slider even looks different, in XP it is slimmer than in win8, [same program, simtools]
  9. moon310

    moon310 Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2014
    Messages:
    44
    Balance:
    615Coins
    Ratings:
    +9 / 0 / -1
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, 3DOF, DC motor
    Question
    Do you need Firmware To upload the Arduino board
    Or just download the file (SMC3.ino v0.63) to Arduino
    and The opening program ( SMC3Utils v0.63 ) and tests and test the motor

    Another question
    To connect the wire there is 1 pin for pwm and 1 pin for direction of h-Bridge

    Is this true form of linking ?
    ad.jpg

    just Only CODE MODE1
    Do you need any Other modification ?
    -----
    the SMC3 Utils Is It similar AMC1.5 and xSimCTRL
    Is if used SMC3 I do not need a program xSimCTRL ؟


    Forgive me On stretching
  10. Pit

    Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Gold Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2013
    Messages:
    3,013
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Balance:
    30,415Coins
    Ratings:
    +3,088 / 31 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Arduino, 6DOF
    No firmware needed, only the ino file has to be uploaded via the Arduino software. SMC3 utility is needed to set the parameters individually and test the motors. The proceeder is described at the beginning of this thread.
    The wiring is very well described and very easy to do. Only follow the pictures.
    No, the rest has to be done within the SMC3 utility.
    Please READ the complete todo at the beginning of this thread, there is all described and easy to understand. If there are any issues you will run into while configuring the set we are here to help you :) But first read please ;)
  11. moon310

    moon310 Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2014
    Messages:
    44
    Balance:
    615Coins
    Ratings:
    +9 / 0 / -1
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, 3DOF, DC motor
    I worked all the steps
    Everything
    the program is Very Very cool
    I worked for the test Pots And move the blue line :thumbs

    There is another question
    When the testing process are linking the Pots with the motor as the picture
    DSC04707.JPG


    In order to get the desired result
    Or leave Pots Also in the picture
    3222.png

    and work test:nerd
  12. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    Hello Rufus,
    Are you sure that in MODE2, there is reverse braking?
    With square wave, there is absolutely no difference in the overshoot and the reaction, whether the PWMreverse is set to 0 or set to 255.
  13. RufusDufus

    RufusDufus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2013
    Messages:
    681
    Location:
    Adelaide Australia
    Balance:
    15,644Coins
    Ratings:
    +1,009 / 8 / -1
    The PWMrev is not used for normal operation... this is only used when the motors pass the limit lines and is used as an aggressive braking to help stop the sim getting damaged but running past max travel.

    The PID parameters are used to control overshoot. Try increasing the Kd parameter just a little.
  14. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    I see, thank you for the program by the way :)
    I thought reverse braking was the normal operation to make it quicker, but it may be too agressive indeed.

    Yes, I know of the several parameters, but just wanted to try PWMreverse, not knowing it is only last resort. :)

    I set a clip input value, because at the limits it becomes jumpy because of the pots ends are coated with conductive glue.
    But it seems that for the manual test mode, the set clip input is not always active, but i am not sure.
  15. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    Where does the ard write the parameters values?
    Reprogramming did not erase them.
    How can you erase them? [not that i wanted to do so]
  16. berty

    berty Member

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2014
    Messages:
    72
    Balance:
    164Coins
    Ratings:
    +11 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    Arduino
    Hi everyone, How do I modify the code to MODE2 what to delete or add? Because I can not do it. Thank you for your response.
  17. hooshang

    hooshang Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2011
    Messages:
    272
    Balance:
    289Coins
    Ratings:
    +157 / 3 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, AC motor, Arduino, 6DOF
    simply write MODE2 instead of MODE1 at the beginning of the code SMC3 v0.63
    hope it help
    regards
    Hooshang
  18. berty

    berty Member

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2014
    Messages:
    72
    Balance:
    164Coins
    Ratings:
    +11 / 0 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    Arduino
    So that only this just overwrite the MODE2. Nothing more?

    Attached Files:

  19. Pit

    Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Gold Contributor

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2013
    Messages:
    3,013
    Location:
    Switzerland
    Balance:
    30,415Coins
    Ratings:
    +3,088 / 31 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    DC motor, Arduino, 6DOF
    Nothing more. Uploading and done.
  20. Thread

    Thread Member

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    121
    Balance:
    295Coins
    Ratings:
    +15 / 1 / -0
    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, Arduino
    Hi Rufus!
    Please advise, i am making progress, testing the rig, with an empty seat for now.
    In SMCutils, i use square wave, and when the seat moves down, generates voltage, some 16Volts on a 4Amps supply.
    On an ATX power supply, the effect is that the voltage drops to zero [i can also hear the fan stops in the power supply], and the square wave's bottom half is severily overshot. for half a second the green line drops unstoppable without power voltage.
    Does that mean that [in MODE2] there is no brake? Or just the H bridge can not brake without the motor voltage?
    If i will sit in the seat, there will be more trouble.
    I will try another kind of power supply, but if remains, the only solution would be a battery?