Hi!
Hi, I just received my Lynxmotion Aluminum A4WD1 MTS 12T Rover Kit and was disappointed to find there are no assembly instructions. The link on the web page is to the assembly instructions for the 4 wheeled version. Does anyone know where the instructions are?
Thanks
It’s pretty much the same assembly with the exception of running tracks. Didn’t it ship with 4 motors?
Hi @bmoscato , yes I got 4 motors. I did eventually work out that you had to use the 4 wheel instructions with the separate sprocket and track instructions, which are links on the rover page. However, for the cost of this chassis, I think it should have it own complete instructions. This chassis costs £262.68, I bought a cheap kit for £19.95 that had full easy to follow instructions (albeit translated from Chinese, so it had some interesting use of English)
So far, I am not very impressed with this kit, there is some very rough finishing on the sprockets, OK that won’t effect the running, but I was expecting better for the price.
Hopefully it will all fit together nicely and I’ll adjust my opinion
Thanks
Tony
I can’t speak for the quality of the tracks since I own the wheeled version and the quality is fine. I was actually contemplating purchasing the tracks to replace my wheels… but now I may rethink that.
As for the instructions… I’m almost positive that they state that the instructs weren’t included but available for download (they’ve been doing this for at least 10 years). That said, they should modify the existing instructions to to facilitate the building of both tracked and wheeled vehicles.
@bmoscato, the track moulding is of variable quality, some sections are crisp and clean and others are horrible, as you can see here.
I’m pretty easy going, but I would complain about that. Like you said, you didn’t buy a cheap toy, you bought a quality kit! I would think it would be something as simple as them sending you a few extra links?
Taking a look at the photo, we have seen this before and we do apologize this reached you. The machine we are using requires an update to prevent this from happening, and we hope to have the issue corrected ASAP. We greatly apologize for any inconvenience. If there are any cuts which cause issues with the motion, we will absolutely replace them.
Regarding assembly, you are correct that the only change in the A4WD1 guide is that the 12T sprocket are used instead of the four wheels.
http://www.lynxmotion.com/driver.aspx?Topic=assem07 (and linked to on the RobotShop prodcut page as well).
The tracked version of the kit was created after we received a high enough number of requests to release a tracked version. We do apologize that priorities at the time prevented us from investing in creating a separate guide, and we hope to correct this approach soon.
Hope this provides some insight, and we do appreciate that you took the time to provide feedback.
@cbenson, thanks for the reply.
The link in your reply goes to a different page than the link on robotshop, the robotshop instructions don’t mention the caps across the motor, so there is an inconsistency there.
I’ve put the tracks together now and I would > 50% of them are misformed along the edge, how did this get past QC? It’s a shame as the design of the tracks is very nice.
As I said earlier, this is not a cheap kit and QC should be addressed.
Regards
Tony
@tonyd - Looking into it currently. The tracks have always been cut using the same (entirely custom) machine for well over 10 years, and unfortunately it’s showing its age. We have new machinery we’ll be testing ASAP and once again apologize for this. We’ll keep people posted here.
I have another problem, I hope you can help with. When I wired up the motor drive only the left tracks rotate. Both motors on that side work. I wanted to rule out the motor drive so I removed it and applied 12v to the right side motors, they both start and then stop immediately, voltage drops to 1.2v When I removed the tracks, I could gradually bring the voltage up to 12v and both motors behaved , drawing 0.13A. One of the motors sounds like it’s labouring though. The tracks look to have the same amount of play but the motors won’t turn the right side track. I don’t see any part of the track fouling the body. Any ideas what is going on?
Tony
Ok, I think there are 2 problems.
It looks like the tracks are fouling somewhere as there is an audible clonk as the track rotates. I can’t see where that is happening. The sprockets are not dragging on the chassis, so the tracks are likely to be the issue. I don’t know if that’s to do with the bad mouldings.
Secondly, I went back to the motor drive and tested just one motor at a time. M2 drove all motors, M1 didn’t drive anything. I got the multi meter out and used a 6v battery (4*AA) to power the driver. M2 measures 6v across the terminals, B+/B- measures 6v, M1 measures 0.25v across the terminals. So it looks like my initial problem was caused by a faulty motor driver?
Is there anything I am missing with the driver? All switches are on, but I think they are more to do with comms than power, right?
How do we solve these problems? My suggestion is that you send me some wheels until you have fixed the track problem and then send me a new set of tracks and you replace the motor drive.
Tony
@tonyd how do you have your switches set? The settings on the driver are different from the R/C version. These are the settings for the switches:
hi @bmoscato . I left the switches at the default position which is all ON. I did notice the cap on M1 has a lot more of that white gunk on it that the one on M2.
Tony
@bmoscato, I’ve been there a few times. I came away with the impression the switches govern coms. At the moment I am just testing the motors, I have not connected to an Arduino yet. I expected the Sabertooth to run both M1 and M2 based on the electrics only. I am very much a software person, the hardware is relatively new to me, so I may be barking up the wrong tree.
Tony
How are you testing the motors? Obviously you have both M1 and M2 wired up as well as a power source on B -/+… but I don’t understand how you plan on spinning the motors without signal. I was having weird issues when I was first wiring up my R/C version of the driver and realized that my issue had to do with the auto-calibrate switch being in the on position instead of off.
Also, I think I saw that you wrote that you were running a 9V battery, is that enough to run 4 12V motors?
At the start I had M1/M2 connected to the 4 motors. Once I realised M1 wasn’t working I removed the cables from M2 to isolate M1. I didn’t want to break the unit so started by using 4x1.5 AA batts (that was enough to power the 2 motors on M2 in an earlier test). The 6v did nothing, so I attached the unit to my variable desk power supply and ramped up from 0v to 12v. I used a multimeter to check the voltage at the terminals and it was less than 1v. The instructions say you should use a 12v or 2x 6v batts. I thought the caps would store and discharge enough current to run the motors but as I say, it’s all new to me. What batt do you use to run your 4WD?
