Hi,
I got the base kit assembled, and the a4wd1tst2.bas programmed. When I power up, and press channel A and C, I get appropriate noise, but no response form the motors. I have double checked the bot board jumpers, and sabretooth pins, and motor connections. Attached are photos. Suggestions?
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/photo-6.jpg?derivative=medium&source=web.jpg&type=medium&ver=12997230540001
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/photo-7/web.jpg?ver=12997230460001
Are any LED’s lit up on the motor controller? Status LED 1 should glow dimly when power is applied, and glow brighter when it is reading the pulses.
Light flickers appropriately, but only when the channels are plugged into 0 and 1, as opposed to 10&11-then it is only lit steadily. Even in 0&1 there was no motor response, when the led flickered
Is there a jumper missing on the power selection pins for 8-11?
I don’t have Bot Board experience, but this looks strange to me.
The code uses pins 0 and 1. Why are you using 10 and 11? Lets get the motor controller on the right pins and work from there. The docs for the motor controller state the status LED will light dimly when power is applied and glow brighter when it is receiving pulses from the microcontroller. No mention of blinking. Could we get some more images showing the power wiring?
The diagram from the tutorial (build 148) showed 10 and 11–I found 0 and 1 on a different tutorial (build 134).
Both had same instructions on testing with this code.
Anyway, back on ) and !, I do get appropriate dimming of the sabretooth led when A or C is pressed.
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/IMG_2466.jpg?derivative=medium&source=web.jpg&type=medium&ver=12998658180001
Note I am using two 6 volt battery packs, wired as per instructions.
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/IMG_2464/web.jpg?ver=12998658370001
Ok you never mentioned using an arm so stick with 134. The programs do need to change for 148. We are fixing it now. Can you measure the voltage on the battery terminals on the motor controller? Too bad the image 246 isn’t larger. Not sure what’s going on…
My multimeter is giving up the ghost, so I will replace it tomorrow. Until then…
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/IMG_2469/web.jpg?ver=12998985920001
http://gallery.me.com/trister1/100438/IMG_2467/web.jpg?ver=12998986160001
Battery terminals on motor controller 13.4 volts. No voltage measured at motor controller terminals on board when pressing A or C, even multiple times, though again LED does dim when button pressed.
Just to be sure, The current code you are using, does the lines look like:
pulsout 0,(left_speed*20) ' Left Scorpion channel.
pulsout 1,(right_speed*20) ' Right Scorpion channel.
or does it look like:
pulsout 10,(left_speed*20) ' Left Scorpion channel.
pulsout 11,(right_speed*20) ' Right Scorpion channel.It should have 10 and 11…
Also if it were me, I would also try with one motor and see if it works… Just in case there is a bad one…
Kurt
Code is for 0 and 1
Have you tried changing it to 10 and 11 and see if that helps?
Kurt
The code should send the commands to pins 0 and 1. This is the norm when an arm is not used. If you use an arm you move the motor controller to pins 10 and 11. You can try 10 and 11 on the assumption 0 and 1 have been damaged, but honestly it should work with 0 and 1.
This is a pretty simple operation. As far as I can tell from the images the wiring looks accurate. Here is a test for you to try.
Connect a normal standard servo to pin 0 and or 1. Also connect 6vdc to the VS power terminal and jumper the 0-3 I/O pin group to VS power. The servo should hold mid position. and move one way or the other in small increments when the buttons are pressed. This essentially removes the motor controller from the equation. Let me know what happens.
I did this with the servos of the arm, it worked as you said it would. Should I get a new motor controller?
The evidence is pointing to the motor controller. You may want to contact Dimension Engineering to see if they have any ideas. Thanks, Jim
Ordered new sabretooth, worked immediately as it should. Will scrap the old one. Thanks all!