Time for upgrade 2DOF to 6!!

@BondeX , sorry i didnt saw before your question, but i wont put a link to theses struts as they sucks too much, i had to order ball joint to replace the one sold with them because they had bout 3/16 slack lol hawfull, you really need to check on amazon or e-bay with the specific specs you need, i am very unsure about what i ordered, i wont lead you to a bad choice...good luck

Hi all, i did received the missing parts to finish the electronic panel, here is the video(hope it works on this first try LOL) of the motors positionning themselves at start-up and me pushing to show i have resistance from motor. It looks like everything is OK, but i verified in SMC3 util and i have 3 out of 6 motors that show reverse when i manually move the arm ??? i tried reversing the wires like Rufus tutorial said, but start-up went crazy all wrong...put it back like it was and now like the video. Now on to xsimulator software, i read and found marchan-e's set-up to have an idea on how to set-up 6dof, in interface settings i see the axes are doubled with the same Comport, i did used 6 different arduino so i guess i need to set one axe per com??

Careful with those Switched Hubs, I had a Nightmare of a time with a 7 port back when.....Ive also managed to completely BLOW a port on the 7 port hub to be rendered useless.....Essentially i know it failed as Simtools crashed and that port to this day is dead. I seriously question the quality of those hubs.....Ill break it out again and test on V2 as it is A LOT cleaner as far as the connection goes and overall chance of it dropping the connection is a lot slimmer.

@Nick Moxley , yes indeed thoses comport are very bad, as you can see i only used 3 on each because windows doesnt recognize the other ones?? i planned on using only one for theses and the other for other peripherals but i am running out of USB port with all i got + my VR helmet
OK this morning i post a video showing what i tried to put in simtools since my motors are turning on, but without success, i am also wondering how do i determine which motor will be which interface in simtool??
Tks for help!!

@poman, are you running SMC3 on your arduinos? Do the motors move using SMC3 utilit?

Yes i used SMC3 util to set-up motors and ards, but i didnt open it while i tried to program simtools ?? do i need to?
And with SMC3 running, yes i was able to make the motor move by moving the potentiometer by hand.

In each interface tab you simply choose which <Axis> (motor) you want to send out e.g. Interface1 - <Axis1><Axis3><Axis4>, Interface2 - <Axis5><Axis2><Axis6>, etc. How you order them within Simtools is irrelevant as long as the receiving side gets the axis values as it expects them.

SMC3 utility should be closed while using simtools.

@poman, when SMC3 utility is running, have you tried clicking on one of the motion profile like a sine wave or squre wave to see if motors move that way?

Hi,
I decided it would be more simple to just make another video to show you guys what i mean and i hope i am clear enough, the language barrier sometimes gives me a hard time to get the answer i am looking for
Just a quick note, i said in the video that it was Bondex but i meant Blazinh that i should have said...my memory !!!

you have to use one smc3 utility with the proper com port to control every motor as you use one arduino per motor.
some other member here @SilentChill if i remember right has six different SMC utilities (different folder each one) for managing his motors
then in simtools you have to configure one interface per arduino your case is motor too Interface1 - [A<Axis1>]
Interface2 -[A<Axis2>] ... Interface6 - [A<Axis6>]>

Hi. I saw that you were going to use one arduino for each motor after I made my post above. So in your case you would need on Interface1-<Axis1>, Interface2-<Axis2>, Interface3-<Axis3>, etc. Then, depending on the sketch you are going to use, you may need to add some additional control text to each interface if the sketch requires it.

ok each ard has its own interface and comport, so when you enter the interface you want as motor one it should read in the interface line exactly as follows [A<Axis1>]. then motor two interface should read [A<Axis2>]. then motor three interface should read [A<Axis3>] and so on.

actually @SilentChill uses 3 ards for six motors in which case he labels them [A<Axis1>][B<Axis2]. then [A<Axis3>][B<Axis4>] and so on
no additional code or control should be necessary with smc3

gl hope this helps @poman

@bruce stephen As each Arduino is only driving one motor with its own SMC shouldn't it be [A<Axis1>] for each interface and not [A<Axis1>]....[A<Axis6>]. They are each "Axis1" or am I misunderstanding the issue which @poman is having?

Okay, I don't use SMC3 so I'm not that familiar with it. But I just looked it up and assuming you use the output for motor1 on each ard you would use A<Axis?> where ? is the axis number. Otherwise, if you were to use motor2 output you would need to use a B instead and motor3 output would need a C instead. However, it may be a requirement that they be used in order where motor1 must be used first. If its not and you had an ard with a bad PWM output that's assigned to motor1 for example, you could still use it by using motor2 or motor3 output instead without needing to modify the sketch itself.

Consider Axis1 as motor1, Axis2 as motor2, etc. You then assign the individual dof's needed to each motor.

@BlazinH yes you got it.

ok each arduino running smc3 has motor a, b, c
simtools has 6 axis or motor slots
so each ard running SMC3 has the capability of [A<Axis?>][B<Axis?>][C<Axis?>] the question mark notes the axis being used in simtools there are only 6 available in version1.3

@RiftFlyer if i put [A<Axis1>] all the ards would try to use the same slot in simtools. so they must be labeled to match the slot in the game engine axis assignments.

Of course. I understand. You were correct.

Morning All!!

that was great information, but unfortunately, i had to make another video to show you that its still not moving.
Appreciate a lot your help