Arduino Uno and PIcaxe Instant Robot AXE408

Community General Discussions
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Based on a recommendation from LMR  I purchased a Instant robot shield AXE408 which was rereported to be compatable with Arduino Uno. . After several trials I could not get it drive motors. I can make it blink LEDs , drive hobby servos. But cannot make motors run. I contacted PICAXE and asked for help. I got the following answer back from a John Brown: B "As a company producing PICAXE products we are not familiar with or able to offer support for the Arduino. The Instant Robot Shield should however be compatible with Arduino and other products which use the shield format." I believe the shield is based on a design which was developed by a member of the Let's Make Robots community and that community is probably the best place to seek help from for using the shield with Arduino - or letsmakerobots.com. I went back and studied your PICAXe code and tried several programs but none worked. The motors both work when I apply voltage. I think there may be a problem with PIN 9 & 10. Arduino claims that when the servo library is included it eliminates the ability to have PWM on Pins 9 and 10. (see Servo library (http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Servo)). This library allows an Arduino board to control RC (hobby) servo motors. Servos have integrated gears and a shaft that can be precisely controlled. Standard servos allow the shaft to be positioned at various angles, usually between 0 and 180 degrees. Continuous rotation servos allow the rotation of the shaft to be set to various speeds.The Servo library supports up to 12 motors on most Arduino boards and 48 on the Arduino Mega. On boards other than the Mega, use of the library disables analogWrite() (PWM) functionality on pins 9 and 10, whether or not there is a Servo on those pins. On the Mega, up to 12 servos can be used without interfering with PWM functionality; use of 12 to 23 motors will disable PWM on pins 11 and 12. According to PIXaxe manual pg 4 pins S.9 and S.10 require PWM to turn on Motor A and B. I think this may be why I have not had success getting a servo motor to operate. I am not into programming enough to understand how to get your AXE480 using Arduino Code to operate a continuous servomotor.
Has any one tested used the instant robot shield wit Arduino Uno r3.

. I would appreciate assistance. Can someone suggest how I can > enable Motor A and B using Arduino UNO and AXE480.
Ken Purzycki

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Arduino Uno and PIcaxe Instant Robot AXE408

I just got interested in Robots, programming etc. I was told to get started with an Arduino Uno. After multiple led, motor and other sketchs I got to be a little familiar with programming and decided to try to build a robot. I found Frietzl robot on LMR and built it using Arduino and some custom circuits. Later I was told I should just get an Atafruit moder Shield v1 and use it with the Arduino. After many hrs of programming trial and error I got it all to work. Now I want to add to it but I do not have and digital pins free. Fritzl built his series 2 LMR using the Picax AXE480 and highly recommended it because it was compatable with Arduino code. I bought it to replace the Atafruit shield. The AXE480 came with a manul that only discussed using code which was picaxe compatible. I wrote to them asking them if they had a manul how to interface the AXE480 with Arduino. They responded no and that they had no intentions to do so. The AXE480 works I can drive a servo and a sharp Ir and LEDs, but I can not fiqure out how to drive and control the motors. This is were I wouild like a little assistance. Am I missing a library for Arduino UNO? Is there a library existing which can be used to cotroll motors with the ATX480?

I just need a start or be pointed in the right direction. I have written FritzL and Revolutuion (makers of AXE480) neither is interested.

I just need to know how to set up Motor A & B. and I am sure I can figure the rest out.

Thanks Ken