Tutorial SPS - Sabertooth Packet Serial PID motor driver sketch w/SoftStart

That looks right, which suggests a port or communications issue.

To narrow that down can you please post a picture of SMC3 running the Sine test.

If that confirms the same port please try temporarily disabling your firewall and antivirus, reinstall SimTools with them off, then test again while they are off. If that works you may need to whitelist SimTools.

You keep mentioning both sabertooth and IBT2, and it is just confusing.

For Sabertooth what steps in the official setup have or have not been done: https://xsimulator.net/community/th...ial-pid-motor-driver-sketch-w-softstart.9277/


If you have a new 2x32 or a 2x32 that is not already set to 115200 baud, use DEscribe software to set its baud rate to 115200. (note: setting the baud on a new 2x60 with DEscribe is not necessary) https://www.dimensionengineering.com/info/describe
If you wish to use serial timeouts on a 2x32 you must set them to 100ms using DEscribe also.
Wire up your Arduino to your Sabertooth as shown above in the wiring diagram
Connect your Arduino to your computer via USB.
If not already done download and install the Arduino programming software
Download and run SabertoothArduinoLibrary.exe attached below
If not already done apply power to your Sabertooths motor inputs.
Now use the Arduino programming software to install the SPS sketch attached below on your Arduino. Make sure you choose Uno or Mega and to set the comport number.
Next download and run the Windows SMC3 Utility software attached below and make sure it communicates with your Arduino. Open the accompanying SMC3Utils.ini with notepad to change the comport if needed (see image below)
Set Fpid to / 1. (If you experience motor twitching or other issues then try increasing it)
Set Step to 100 and then set Kp, Ki, Kd, PWMmin, PWMmax, PWMrev to 0 (This will make sure the motors don’t move)
Set Clip to 255 (you need to do this first) and Limit to 255 (This will give you plenty of margin if something goes wrong while setting up)
Now click the -> M2 button to apply the same settings to motor 2 also
Change Kp for motor 1 from 0 to about 400
Set step back to 1
Click the ON/OFF button for motor 1 to ON
Now slowly, increase PWMmax… at some point the motor should start to move. When it does check the “Green” feedback line is moving toward the “Blue” target position.
If it is then that motor and feedback is wired correctly - proceed to test other motors.
If it is moving away turn off motor power immediately (or quickly reduce PWMmax again). In this case you need to either reverse the wires to the motor being tested –OR– reverse the +5V and GND wires to your feedback pot for the motor being tested (do not do both). Restart the test from the beginning.
If you are using a 2x60 and the motor doesn’t move, and assuming its wiring is correct, then its possible that your Sabertooths baud rate did not match what was expected when the sketch was run so it may not have autobauded. See the wiring diagram about setting jumpers to try a different baud rates.
Set Step back to 100 and repeat steps #13, #14, #15, and #16 above for motor 2
Motor driver setup is now complete but the PID controller will still need to be turned to work properly with your particular setup. This will be done later though and is not included in the scope of this tutorial
Now start Simtools Game Engine (see image below)
Open Interface Settings
Now set up Interface1 as shown in the image below but substitute your arduino’s ComPort number if it is not on Com1.
Click the SAVE button
Simtools Game Engine Interface is now correctly configured to send data to the SPS motor driver sketch
That’s all. You can now start testing your setup with Simtools.