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Joyrider with wiper motors

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Projects' started by GoFast124, Dec 29, 2009.

  1. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    Hi,
    I have been making a joyrider with wiper motors. here is a picture:

    [​IMG]

    I am using a K8055 and a motor controller from Ocean electronics. It seems to be working ok except the feedback from the pot is not registering properly. I either get motion one way and nothing the other way or I have too much movement before the cradle stops.

    At this point I am thinking that what you need here is a large 12v servo motor. I have made this using a wiper motor and a the circuits mentioned. but, I am assuming the analogue input to Profiler will switch the motors off. Is this wrong? I am thinking that I need to make Thanos' cuircuit but I am not too good with the cuircuit board. Could I use something like this:
    http://www.oceancontrols.com.au/motor_controller/robotics/polo_hipower_0425.htm

    could someone confirm this would work? I would like to be able to buy a kit.

    thanks
    David K
  2. tronicgr

    tronicgr

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    Hi David,

    I don't think you will find better motion interface / driver than AMC1.5/DSMhb1.2b combo... They were designed for this task after all... ;-)

    You will sacrifice lots of motion accuracy by using other motion controllers that can't do their own internal PID feedback positioning and realtime changing of acceleration speed!
  3. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    Thanks,
    I have pretty much worked out what you mean when you say the K8055 isn't fast enough. I sort of got it going, my problem has been that I didn't understand how a servo motor worked and that it doesn't use the dynamic motion, rather just a left or right or center signal. The machine is pretty much working now but its no good because its just rocking from side to side while it tries to find the center point, hence as you say, its not reading the signal fast enough to stop the motor in time.

    It has been a good learning excercise but I think I will take your advice and just make the AMD circuit. Back to the drawing (soldering) board.

    cheers
    David K
  4. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    I have just finished the AMC1.5. I have been outside in the shed at 45C drilling holes all day. I have etched my first PCB ever and am pretty proud of it :) . I think its all ok now but I wanted to check a couple of things before I power it up.

    -Firstly the capacitors that I got sent are not the right voltage. they are

    5 x 10uF 16V (not 100v)
    the 18 and 22p caps are 50V not 100V as specified.

    Will they be ok?

    -I haven't found the 24MHz crystal yet (I found some on ebay). can I use any crystal under that? I found a 14.31818MHz, will that work??

    -In the schematics, what is IN1 and IN2? are they the analogue inputs to the motor driver?

    -I can't find what the Rx and Tx connector is for, can you explain? (the 3 wire molex connector)

    I haven't even got this circiut going yet but already I love it, it has really got me thinking about microcontrollers.

    David K
  5. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    here's a picture of the board.
    [​IMG]
  6. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    I just found that it does matter what the frequency of the crystal is as it is for the serial port timing.

    I also found what the Rx and Tx connector is for.

    I'm up to page 36 of 86. lots of reading to go...
  7. tronicgr

    tronicgr

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    Yes, no problem, they will be used in 5V anyway!

    Digital outputs to the motor driver: Used to enable each side of the h-bridge and control direction of the motor. Speed is set from the other output called PWM...

    These are used to connect the onboard Max232 circuit or use an external com adapter like the Sparkfun FT232 USB2serial.

    Thanos
  8. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    Over the last few weeks I have been making PCB boards and the AMC motion controller as per tronicgr's advice. So far I have made it to getting it working in profiler, but it hasn't all gone to plan. I didn't get any response from the com port port to start with. I had issues with writing the program and got the old 'device not found -24' error message in ponyprog. I think it turned out to be either a bad solder or the fact I had to use a gender changer on the com port. Anyway thats all programmed up again now.

    I have become a bit of a fan of making PCBs lately, its pretty fun! here is the latest lot I did:

    [​IMG]

    I am using this new AMC circuit just for the H-bridge connector as I am using Ocean controls bi-directional speed controller. I'll probably make a h-bridge next anyway but I have the ocean controls sc for now.

    So I am off to do more drilling (Not all of this is fun) to make the interface, After this I should have a working machine. Stay tuned...

    David K
  9. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    Hi
    I am back. I had a break for a month and have been working on the circuit for the last couple of months. At last I have something being displayed on the screen. I came accross a couple of problems:

    I couldn't connect to Pony Prog, just got the device not found error. I fixed that by checking the soldering and found a bad solder joint. That part works perfectly now. I also got a new Atmega chip but I am not sure that was a problem.

    Next, I couldn't get the lcd to work. I either got the wrong LCD or (more than likely) I didn't have the contrast adjusted right. I bought a different LCD and now that is working. One thing here that I noticed is that the LCD panel showed nothing until AFTER I unplugged the serial cable and reset.

    Finally I couldn't program the Kp values using Hyperterminal. The problem there turned out to be that I was using the Beta firmware. Now I used the Version 1 the LCD displays all the values and moves with the pot.

    I am now at the point of connecting the motor and controller BUT The servo outputs are not working. they have power but no movement from the servo I have plugged in.

    Does the servo output actually work? Is there a dip switch to turn it on? I already have the power connected, I just need the signal from the ATMega.

    thanks
    David K
  10. GoFast124

    GoFast124 New Member

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    oh, a couple of other points I'd like to mention:
    -I used a USB Serial board but it came up as com6. I couldn't use that port in PonyProg.

    -I couldn't start the profiler, that was because there were 2 bluetooth com ports that I had to disable in the Device Manager. This solved both of these problems.