I have the TREX tank and Controller and when I initially received the units I was able to test the hardware with a RC receiver and everything worked as expected. However, a couple of years later I am now ready to test the robotics software framework I have developed and recently found that the motor controller is now behaving rather strangely.
The motor controller only drives the motors to spin when the direction for each motor are the opposite. For example: if I want to turn with no throttle input I can see that both variables lmspeed and rmspeed are being properly calculated prior to being written to their respective pins and the sign for each variable are opposite which in turn drive the direction pin for the FETs. When I use zero steering and apply forward throttle or reverse and the signs are the same for each variable and I get zero movement and a slight humming sound.
Reviewing the Motor.ino I can clearly see that this should be working but I think I may have a electrical issue on the controller and I am not sure where to begin since there are no schematics available for the controller. I would greatly appreciate any advice in helping me track down the root cause to this issue.
void Motors()
{
digitalWrite(lmbrkpin,lmbrake>0); // if left brake>0 then engage electronic braking for left motor
digitalWrite(lmdirpin,lmspeed>0); // if left speed>0 then left motor direction is forward else reverse
analogWrite (lmpwmpin,abs(lmspeed)); // set left PWM to absolute value of left speed - if brake is engaged then PWM controls braking
if(lmbrake>0 && lmspeed==0) lmenc=0; // if left brake is enabled and left speed=0 then reset left encoder counterdigitalWrite(rmbrkpin,rmbrake>0); // if right brake>0 then engage electronic braking for right motor
digitalWrite(rmdirpin,rmspeed>0); // if right speed>0 then right motor direction is forward else reverse
analogWrite (rmpwmpin,abs(rmspeed)); // set right PWM to absolute value of right speed - if brake is engaged then PWM controls braking
if(rmbrake>0 && rmspeed==0) rmenc=0; // if right brake is enabled and right speed=0 then reset right encoder counter
}
Thank You in advance!!!
[fixed]
Found the root cause and it was a partial short of the two FETs. Running great now after applying proper wire management.