Questions regarding bot board and atom pro 28

Lynxmotion Electronics & Software
1

Hello,

I am using an FTDI USB to serial adapter cable. I have been able to detect and test the board according the this tutorial, lynxmotion.com/images/html/build147.htm. The sample programs seem to work fine. I have noticed that the green LED light does not turn on and I don’t remember ever seeing it turn on. Yet I can still get the sample programs to run. Are those sample programs supposed to run even if the green LED does not come on? Also if it makes any difference, I am reading 5V from the The voltage regulator on the board when applying 9V to VL.

Also on the “A4WD1 & AL5 Arm Tutorial for PS2 Control v2.0” guide here lynxmotion.com/images/html/build148.htm (which is very straight forward) I have tried to load the a4wd1tst2.bas program onto the board in order to run the Differential or Tank Mode Test. Now, for the motors on the rover, I am using two sets of batteries 12V total. I know that the batteries work fine AND I know that that motors run fine when I directly apply voltage to them. When I run the a4wd1tst2.bas program the motors do not respond to me pressing any of the buttons. But if I slighlty move the CH1 and CH2 cables that connect the bot board (pins 10 and 11) to the sabretooth, the motors on the left side begin to rotate which is part of what the program is trying to do. It just doesn’t seem to respond to when I press the buttons in the way that the program is meant to or at all.

Like i said before, the tutorials are very straight forward. I also don’t remember anything overheating. The motors, batteries, sabretooth, and wiring in the rover seems to all be working fine. I believe there may be an issue with the bot board/atom pro(green LED does not light up) or maybe the cables that connect the board to the sabretooth. I really would appreciate any suggestions whatsoever.

Thanks

2

Hi,

it would probably help to see the actual wiring. A picture may be worth a thousand words!

I have found that if the power light does not come on, than there is usually a wiring problem. Sometimes I have found that one of the power wires comes lose or a battery is dead. But as you are saying that you are reading 5V coming out of the voltage regulator than I would assume that this is not your problem.

Next most likely thing is a short. If a visual inspection does not uncover one, I usually end up removing all of the wires going in or out of the BB2 except my main power and see if it works. If it does than you can start adding a sub-set of the other wires until either everything works or you know where the problem is.

There is always a rare possibility that the LED plain does not work.

Rereading your post, I am not sure from your description if you were successfully able to download the program? From your description it again sounds like there may be a short or the line with your wires going to the sabertooth.

Could also be a problem with the PS2. You might want to try out the tutorial: lynxmotion.com/images/html/build034.htm

Good Luck
Kurt

3

Thanks for the reply.

As far as the programs being downloaded, I really think that they are. I think that you may be correct with your prediction that there might be a short somewhere. And just to clarify, I have not attempted to connect the PS2 yet.

Could there be a soldering issue on the sabretooth itself?