2DOF wiper Seat mover

Hi Ramok, Nice setup.

Did you solve your intermittent problems?

I notice in the forums over time there have been quite a few people suspect Comms baud rates as the cause of their problems... In my opinion while changing the baud rate may solve the issue in many instances, I don't think it is the root cause - especially for Arduino setups. If you have a look at an Arduino setup you see that the actual RS232 serial comms is actually only running between two chips on the Arduino board itself - over a distance of about 2cm. Refer to the drawing below:

The comms between your PC and the Arduino is USB hence the use of a USB cable. The PC communicates via USB to the 16U2 chip on the Arduino board and sets that chip up to communicate at whatever baud rate you want the PC to talk to the ATmega328 with. Your Arduino code runs on the ATmega328 and has to be setup to use the same baud rate. Both the chips on the Arduino have their own crystals which are used when configuring these baud rates - so the RS232 baud rates are not PC dependent.

That aside, I have used RS232 comms quite alot in my past and it is quite a robust interface - one reason it has lived on as long as it has. It is actually also designed to be relatively tolerant of clock variations between sender and receiver. In most instances when I have had RS232 serial comms problems in the past it has been due to poor signal levels usually caused by incorrect grounding between sender and receiver. As the sender and receiver are on the one Arduino board this is less likely unless something else is causing significant ground noise.

The reality is there is no reason that the Arduino should have a chip to convert the USB to an intermediate RS232 serial comms to then communicate with the ATmega328 except that it is a cheap, easy and well supported method. If a different processor was used your sketch code could just communicate with the PC USB directly, but then you would have to know how to communicate over USB which is a bit more involved - and the processor would need to be a bit better resourced.

So how does that help you?

Well I guess what I'm trying to say is don't be too concerned with baud rate. Even at 9600 baud, one byte of data will be sent in approx 1ms so if this gets you running, use that and look for other causes while its running.

It could be that your computer is sending data too fast and either the USB to serial converter or the ATmega isn't keeping up and buffers are overflowing - try increasing the packet delay in the Simtools interface setup. Start off with something like 50ms to see if it improves things and if it does slowly reduce it to where it falls over.

It could be bad drivers on the PC that aren't configuring the 16U2 on the Arduino properly - I think that's less likely but I assume you installed the Arduino drivers when you installed the IDE?

My guess though is that it is most likely related to poor grounding or noise in your setup. Motors, particularly when running with high current have the potential to create alot of electrical noise. You should have good solid (as in heavy duty) cabling for your power/ground cables throughout the setup. Try to keep the motor power cables away from the USB, pots cables, and electronics if possible.

Look for other ways of validating parts of your build. For example to test the PC to Arduino comms (both USB and RS232 serial) you could write some test code for the arduino that does nothing else but send back that data it receives at whatever baud rate you want to test. The use a free terminal program on the PC to send a large binary file and capture the received data to another file. When complete you can do a file compare to see if there were errors - do this without any motors powered or running.

Your comment that it seems to be working with external power supply - perhaps the PC USB port does not meet spec and is having trouble powering the Arduino?

Sorry if this is a long winded explanation - I find it hard to fault find when I can't get my hands on things, but I hope it gives you some ideas of where you can look.

By the way, there should be no need to change any comm settings in the device manager - all settings are typically done via the app, in this case simtools.

+1
@Ramok, could you upload some picrures of the wiring inside your box? did you use shielded cables?

Thanks @RufusDufus for all explanation.
@RacingMat There are pictures. This is quite a mess

>quite a mess
Yes indeed! :-/ sorry, i cannot see anything to help...

That's fine that 12V cannot kill you!!
I'm joking but maybe it's part of the problem?

Yours

I built a small compact PC a few years ago and I struggled with inconsistency and signal problems. It turned out to be crosstalk from the power line. Everything worked fine when I was doing bench tests but when the components were packed together in the case I had problems.

Take all the slack out of your wiring and route them carefully round the edges of the box away from any signal or control wires. Route those down the other side. Or if you can take everything out and bench test with the wires seperated out.

Hi
I tested with external power supply for some days and looks like work fine.
No more crashes for simtools.
I want to thank everyone who helped me. THANK YOU
We'll hear when run into a problem again.

Good news!
you're welcome

Hi me again after 2 years
I have a problem with my setup. After 1 year of sleeping in sim racing i decide to play again with motion. I install SimTools 2.0 and nothing work any more
Ok download Arduino code from @RacingMat, put in to Arduino and motor just turn in one direction never stop. Then searching for code. Found here http://www.gamoover.net/Forums/index.php?topic=25907.0 But no work in SimTools 2.0 . I try in SimTools 1.3 there is working ( Output testing (manual)).
If you have any idea what will be wrong.

Hi @noorbeast
I follow all the instructions and now work in manual testing. I also try LFS but not work in game. Yes game is patched. What i am do wrong?

@noorbeast
I change language setting but nothing happened. Still not working.
Here is two video Assetto and LFS in AC is a tiny movement in virtual axis.

What are your max min settings in tuning centre?

Here is my screenshots.
In LFS game data output is "0" and AC show some numbers.

That was my guess. Your MaxMin settings in Tuning Centre are all ±32767. With such high numbers you will never get any movement.
Click on Capture Max Min, then on Reset and drive a round (without crashing) and Save New Settings.
You'll have movement!

Ok thanks a lot @value1 AC works great.
Why LFS doesn't work ?
Automobilista plugin exist or is compatibility plugin (GSC......)