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2DOF setup - Motors twitched - a little help to get going please?

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by SDMagoo, Nov 10, 2018.

  1. SDMagoo

    SDMagoo New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF
    Hi all,

    My setup basics:
    2DOF Frame Mover
    2x Motion Dynamic Motors - 20Nm - 180 RPM - 200watt - 12v
    Motor Driver - Sabertooth 2x32
    Connected via Arduino Uno
    Pots - Hall effect 180deg


    I am a fair way through my 2dof full frame build and was following this guide to get a bit of motion going for the first time (assuming this is what I should be following based on my setup?)- https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...ket-serial-pid-motor-driver-w-softstart.9277/

    All was going reasonably well until I completed step 8 - "Now use the Arduino programming software to install the SMC3-SPS sketch attached below on your Arduino. Make sure you choose Uno or Mega and to set the comport number."

    At this point my motors fired up for the first time and both continued to twitch back and forth - I noticed quite a sag in voltage from my 12v 600watt PSU - 10.5v from a no/low load 12.5v.

    I watched for a few moments before realising that Motor 1 was releasing tiny wisps of "magic blue smoke" + massive voltage sag - holy crap "flick the off switch!!"

    Motor 1 had gotten quite warm inside by the smell of things, casing eventually became quite warm to the touch - probably rooted now as does not sound the same as the other when turned by hand?

    M2 was reacting in the same way but did not get hot at all.

    First time either motor has had power - brand new.

    Back to google and ground isolation came up as one of the top results - correct me if I am wrong, but when I check for any continuity between the motor housing and +/- there is no circuit at all - so I assumed ground isolated unless I understand this incorrectly?

    Or it's something else I have missed - I have question re Instruction No.2 "If you wish to use serial timeouts on a 2x32 you must set them to 100ms using DEscribe also." This is set to infinity - is the correct in my case?


    Thanks in advance,

    Cheers Rob
  2. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Those motor do not need ground isolation and you should have got to step 16 before powering on, so I am not really sure what you were doing.

    Hard to say what the state of the motor is, you can check it runs by connecting 12V and they are not hard to pull apart to check how the brushes are.
  3. SDMagoo

    SDMagoo New Member Gold Contributor

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    Thanks noorbeast.

    Step 7 - If not already done apply power to your Sabertooths motor inputs. - At this point I gave the Sabertooth 12.5v

    Step - 8 is upload Sketch - motors started before step 9 "download and run SMC3"

    I have since moved to forward step 16 (hoping motor is OK) and when the OFF is clicked for Motor 1, it flicks to ON momentarily before reverting to OFF?

    How should I move forward?
  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    As I suggested try testing the motor on 12v by itself, and if there seems to be an issue pull it apart and check things like brushes, which if needs be you can get from Motion Dynamics.
  5. SDMagoo

    SDMagoo New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Motor still works.

    But I am now at a loss on how to proceed.

    M1 will turn when adjusting PWMmax in SMC3, can't get the on/off to stay on in SMC3,sometimes, but not repeatable and I have no idea what I am doing to be fair.

    M2 appears to be locked into posi, PSU fan increases when under simulated load and will return to position. But have not figured out how to move manually with software yet/or have it respond when PWMmax is adjusted.

    Both hall effect pots appear to report correctly on screen - green line.

    There are so many grey areas for noobs. Not often I get stuck on how to move forward to be honest.

    Next?

    On a brighter note, after a very long build (total hours) with many steps forward and back/re-do's/re-invents etc.

    I finally got to check it out just in static form with 4 tactile transducers - 2 running LFE mono (front to back) and 2 running chasis mode left/right - best racing, immersion, feedback, car driving VR experiences EVER, so as you can imagine I am pretty keen to get this mofo actually moving and add that next layer of immersion.
  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    My Motion Simulator:
    3DOF, DC motor, JRK
    Go back to the start, check everything like wiring and post pictures of it so members cam double check for you. If there is any uncertainty at any step then stop and post for advice.
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  7. weld12

    weld12 New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Verify your dip switches using the wizard on their site if the motors run at power up of the sabertooth. The sabertooth should have a dip switch guide in the box. If the green line (pot) exceed the red line limits it shuts off the motors. A huge thread to digest but worthwhile to read every page.
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  8. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    Not necessary. Set dips as shown in smc3-sps thread.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  9. weld12

    weld12 New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Yes, I agree, although I found it was helpful to understand what I was asking the sabertooth to do based on these settings. For example for my test w/ running a battery vs. PS. I'm not sure but @SDMagoo was wondering why his motors ran at power up before starting smc3 perhaps a switch not set per your instructions ;).
    I tested my sabertooth outputs and test motors manually, dips 1&2 on if I recall correctly.:) Edited for clarity.
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  10. BlazinH

    BlazinH Well-Known Member

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    I don't know what you meant to say here but when dip switches 1 and 2 are down at start there is no way for the sabertooth to output power normally. Something would need to be causing an abnormal condition with the sabertooth. Of course with the sketch running before power up it would cause the motors to start right away if not in position.
    • Informative Informative x 1
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  11. SDMagoo

    SDMagoo New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Thanks for your replies folks.

    Man I hadn't been that stumped in ages.

    Like any good disaster there were multiple factors at play here.

    1: Noob to motion sims - self building off the cuff - sometimes I do actually need help....

    2: The problem turns out to be a dodgy Arduino sketch upload - I cannot find any other cause in hindsight.

    The cure was after reading the last 3 posts here, thanks guys :) I then searched Youtube for smc3 to try and gain a better understanding of what it is and what it actually does, that lead to the youtube video below - which is kind of the the missing part 3 of 3 that I could never find of this youtubers series - great videos, a must watch when your nearing the electronics/software stage of the build.

    The video that made everything finally click into place


    He mentions dodgy Arduino boards early on, and having already suspected something like this I had a spare that I had recently ordered - this then set the course for the next 4 hours of frustration yesterday.

    I kept getting reminded in the Arduino software that my libraries were out of date, and the compiler? was way out of date not having used arduino for several years.

    Worked perfectly the first time as far as I could tell. But maybe it didn't given the issues at first start and so on.

    Updated and it all turned to a steaming turd that continued to fester and bumblef&^*k things from there. All I wanted to do was send the sketch to the board again........

    So lets try a new board.......a dud.....for $11.99NZD I expect better......I should know better.....this sucked up a few hours, lights on but nobody home.

    So after watching the video above - I set forth to resolve my corrupted arduino woes and went right back to the original release code for the arduino compiler, manually deleted directories etc etc and wham bam sketch checked and uploaded!!

    Cool board works, and started responding properly because I now understood some fundamentals of the SMC3 software (and a touch more arduino - know only the basics)- red lines are the limits, if the motor - green line - is outside of the limits ain't nothing gonna happen.

    If I understand the methodology of SMC3 in actual use - it's main role is to generate motion paths (with adjustable on the fly control) be it fixed sine, square, random or manual etc that your motors try and follow, if the PWMmax is set too high the motor will overshoot (with no additional tuning - raw state here), end up outside of the limit and motor defaults to OFF, and cannot be turned back on until moved back into limits by hand - IMPORTANT.

    The goal here is to have both motors follow all types of paths as closely as they can without overshooting, ie: blue line with a green line as close to touching and even as possible? - am I correct here?

    With motors swapped over - one motor keeps revolving, but the other responds correctly.....bit more thinking on that .....a motor continually revolving and not hitting the stop......wrong direction - reverse polarity - boom chuck lucka~~~!!!!!

    Happy days - after 6 hours of fluster I can move past step 16!!

    My only concern moving forward is the motor that took that initial heat damage still works fine at this point (no loads) - but is noticeably noisier than motor 2 (near silent - in a rumbly bearing gear kinda way - 10 speed bike freewheeling noise vs grindy crunchy bad news...cooked the grease out with the excessive heat?), responds about 90% the same as motor 2 in SMC3 - with PWMmax currently set at 51 both follow all lines quite well, motor 2 closer to perfect.

    Onwards to the next road block....lol

    Thanks again.
    • Like Like x 1
  12. SDMagoo

    SDMagoo New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
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    Dip switched were correct - it is currently running in the same config.

    Motors started as soon as Arduino sketch uploaded - which I suspect may not have flashed 100% correctly if this is possible.

    The other thing - when the motors were twitchin back and forth (about an inch of throw), only the 1 motor gained excessive heat, yet both were doing the same thing....motor 2 nevered radiated any additional heat through the casing.
  13. weld12

    weld12 New Member Gold Contributor

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    My Motion Simulator:
    2DOF, DC motor, Arduino
    A great feeling to have the motors working! I'm glad to try and help though I feel like the blind leading the blind;
    being so new to me as well. I had a wire misplaced for a day or two until I realized my signal wire from the arduino wasn't communicating to the sabertooth. :cheers