I’ve recently completed the DFRobotShop Mini Rover project with the additional rover shield. Everything’s connected correctly with the Arduinio UNO (from Elegoo). However, when I turn on the switch the entire board shuts down! It only works when one motor is connected to one of the H-bridge controllers from the rover shield at a time, either the left of the right. I’ve checked the polarity of both motors and they both have the same polarity (i.e., both motors run in the same direction). If one of the motors is running and then I plug in the second one, it’ll work fine. But if I connect the two motors and start the Arduino shield, neither will run. I only see the red LED turning on, but then it shuts downs after a second or two. I used the Arduino sample code (“Sketch #1: Basic Rover – Full speed forward”) that was supplied with the rover shield instructions and sent it to the Arduino UNO, and they seemed to work fine. The battery is a brand new LiPo 3.7V (1200 mAh) and fully charged. However, the two motors connected to the rover shield’s motor controller H-bridge won’t run. Any ideas why the two motors won’t run? Is there an issue with the code or is it that there’s a problem with the rover shield? Thanks!!
@norbac Can you provide a few clear photos of your setup (especially the connections to the shield). We’ll see if we can spot anything. It sounds (at least for now) that the battery is not able to provide the startup current for two motors, which is odd given that it’s a LiPo. There might be the need to do a few charge cycles to get it back up to full capacity (normally they have to be shipped discharged for “safety reasons”). You can also prop the rover up, remove the tracks and try (see if there is any difference if there is no resistance).
Hi,
I made it work for both motors at one by modifying the code. Instead of setting the max. speed (255) as the initial speed, I lowered it to 240 and it worked. Then I kept increasing the value until it got to 250 and it still worked. However, once it hit 255, the whole thing shut down again. 250 is about 98% of the max. speed so it works for me. Still, I think that’s odd that the whole system will shut down when the two motors are running at max speed (255), but not at 98%…
Thank you for your prompt reply though!
Not sure, but can only think it’s a max discharge current issue. Perhaps some charge / discharge cycles will help. Happy you got it working.