hi, I am actually using a DK
hi, I am actually using a DK Electronics motor shield, not sure whether that is different to the adafruit. The ultrasonic sensor is attached with 4 dupont wires that I soldered onto the analog pin rails near the M3 connectors (bottom left of photo).
The connections are:
sensor Vcc - Trig - Echo - Grnd
Board +5 - A4 - A5 - Grnd
Hope this helps.
ultrasound sensor problems
since my last post I have been playing around with the programming of my beastie and am now thinking that most of my problems (getting stuck in corners , going towards obstacles) have very little to do with the software but with the unreliability of the sensor. Separate tests revealed that one of every 3 or 4 pings does not come back and therefore messes with the program. granted the sensor is a cheapy, but has anyone had better experiences with the more expensive models? Any advice welcome 
1 reply
I have a bot that is almost
I have a bot that is almost exactly like this, that I built to play around with code on before intergrating ‘intelligence’ into my large mobile platform. One thing I noticed, is when running the arduino off a 9v battery, and the motors off 4 AA batteries… my ultrasonic sensor was not working exact, I removed the 4 AA batteries and the 9v battery and now power the entire thing from a 11v 3cell R/C battery and it functions perfectly. Plus the battery weighs less and holds more of a charge.
I’d love to see your code, just to see how it compares to mine.
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If I recall, I had to solder
If I recall, I had to solder pin headers to my motor shield. The spot is there for them, you just need to solder them on.
Sorry, haven’t been roboting for a while 
I have now changed the setup to run the motors from 4xAA batteries and the Arduino with a 9V and this seems to work better. I have also completely rewritten the software and made it a lot simpler - and now it actually works! It is stop - go at the moment but it rarely runs into walls now. I will have to incorporate some sort of bump sensor as low obstacles stay ‘under the radar’ but apart from that it works well.
Here is my vastly simplified code 9still needs a bit of fine tuning):
#include <AFMotor.h>
#include <Servo.h>
#include <NewPing.h>
#define TRIG_PIN A4 // Pin A4 on the Motor Drive Shield soldered to the ultrasonic sensor
#define ECHO_PIN A5 // Pin A5 on the Motor Drive Shield soldered to the ultrasonic sensor
#define MAX_DISTANCE 200 // sets maximum useable sensor measuring distance to 200cm
#define MAX_SPEED 180 // sets speed of DC traction motors to 180/256 or about 70% of full speed - to get power drain down.
#define MAX_SPEED_OFFSET 40 // this sets offset to allow for differences between the two DC traction motors ****** from 20
#define COLL_DIST 10 // sets distance at which robot stops and reverses to 10cm
#define TURN_DIST COLL_DIST+10 // sets distance at which robot veers away from object (not reverse) to 20cm (10+10)
NewPing sonar(TRIG_PIN, ECHO_PIN, MAX_DISTANCE); // sets up sensor library to use the correct pins to measure distance.
AF_DCMotor motor1(1, MOTOR12_1KHZ); // create motor #1 using M1 output on Motor Drive Shield, set to 1kHz PWM frequency
AF_DCMotor motor2(2, MOTOR12_1KHZ); // create motor #2, using M2 output, set to 1kHz PWM frequency
Servo myservo; // create servo object to control a servo
int leftDistance, rightDistance; //distances on either side
int curDist = 0;
String motorSet = “”;
int speedSet = 0;
//-------------------------------------------- SETUP LOOP ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void setup() {
myservo.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 (SERVO_2 on the Motor Drive Shield to the servo object
myservo.write(90); // tells the servo to position at 90-degrees ie. facing forward.
delay(1000); // delay for one seconds
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//---------------------------------------------MAIN LOOP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void loop() {
myservo.write(90); // move eyes forward
delay(90);
curDist = readPing(); // read distance
if (curDist < COLL_DIST) {changePath();} // if forward is blocked change direction
moveForward(); // move forward for 1/2 second
delay(500);
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void changePath() {
moveStop(); // stop forward movement
myservo.write(36); // check distance to the right
delay(500);
rightDistance = readPing(); //set right distance
delay(500);
myservo.write(144); // check distace to the left
delay(700);
leftDistance = readPing(); //set left distance
delay(500);
myservo.write(90); //return to center
delay(100);
compareDistance();
}
void compareDistance() // find the longest distance
{
if (leftDistance>rightDistance) //if left is less obstructed
{
turnLeft();
}
else if (rightDistance>leftDistance) //if right is less obstructed
{
turnRight();
}
else //if they are equally obstructed
{
turnAround();
}
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
int readPing() { // read the ultrasonic sensor distance
delay(70);
unsigned int uS = sonar.ping();
int cm = uS/US_ROUNDTRIP_CM;
return cm;
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void moveStop() {motor1.run(RELEASE); motor2.run(RELEASE);} // stop the motors.
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void moveForward() {
motorSet = “FORWARD”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // turn it on going forward
motor2.run(FORWARD); // turn it on going forward
for (speedSet = 0; speedSet < MAX_SPEED; speedSet +=2) // slowly bring the speed up to avoid loading down the batteries too quickly
{
motor1.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor2.setSpeed(speedSet+MAX_SPEED_OFFSET);
delay(5);
}
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void moveBackward() {
motorSet = “BACKWARD”;
motor1.run(BACKWARD); // turn it on going forward
motor2.run(BACKWARD); // turn it on going forward
for (speedSet = 0; speedSet < MAX_SPEED; speedSet +=2) // slowly bring the speed up to avoid loading down the batteries too quickly
{
motor1.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor2.setSpeed(speedSet+MAX_SPEED_OFFSET);
delay(5);
}
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void turnRight() {
motorSet = “RIGHT”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // turn motor 1 forward
motor2.run(BACKWARD); // turn motor 2 backward
delay(400); // run motors this way for 400ms
motorSet = “FORWARD”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // set both motors back to forward
motor2.run(FORWARD);
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void turnLeft() {
motorSet = “LEFT”;
motor1.run(BACKWARD); // turn motor 1 backward
motor2.run(FORWARD); // turn motor 2 forward
delay(400); // run motors this way for 400ms
motorSet = “FORWARD”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // turn it on going forward
motor2.run(FORWARD); // turn it on going forward
}
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void turnAround() {
motorSet = “RIGHT”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // turn motor 1 forward
motor2.run(BACKWARD); // turn motor 2 backward
delay(800); // run motors this way for 800ms
motorSet = “FORWARD”;
motor1.run(FORWARD); // set both motors back to forward
motor2.run(FORWARD);
}
will post a video as soon as I get around to it.
Test Bench Test Worked
I put my components together on the test bench today and copied and pasted the code into one of those super cheap clone UNO R3’s with the 340 USB to TTL chips on it and used the russian driver to get it to work and all went to plan, the motors were powered from a seperate supply and although it ate the batteries quickly it did what I expected it to do. I backed the max speed down to 50% and increased the ping distance just to see what would happen and I got the results that I was looking for, in all very pleased. Thanks to all for the info here, it helped greatly,Cheers, Terry.