The issue is, this is the RC version of the motor controller, and I have no plans to use an form of remote control on this robot, I need to to be fully autonomous.
In terms of the Switches on the controller itself, all of them are set to the UP position.
However, when I power on the motor controller, the 2 right wheels move of their own accord. This occurs even when the arduino isnt connected or even powered on. Furthermore, no matter what code I put onto the arduino the 2 right wheels still move in the same manner. Also, I was told that when this controller receives power, the status 1 LED should glow dimly, however the Status one LED is off and none of the LED’s on the board are on. At this point in time I am really confused as to why the motor controller is powering these two motors off their own accord.
In terms of the wiring, I have the 2 orange (PWM) wires connected to PWM Pins 9 and 10, I have both the ground wires connected to a single GND pin on the arduino, and none of the Red Wires connected. The Arduino runs off a separate power supply to the Motor Controller.
Can someone explain to me why the motors just move off their own accord, and what I need to do in order to program them the way I want?
That seems like very strange behaviour. You should be able to use the Arduino Servo library to generate the signals necessary to control the Sabertooth, and the motors should not be moving if the Sabertooth isn’t receiving any signals. Can you upload a picture of you setup that shows all your connections and configurations? What power source and motors are you using?
For additional support, you could also contact the manufacturer’s technical support directly at [email protected].
As you can see, I have the 2 Orange (PWM) Cables connected to Arduino Pins 9 and 10.
I have both the ground cables connected to one Arduino ground pin, and none of the red wires are connected.
There was also the issue that none of the status LEDS would light up upon the controller receiving 12v of power, so I talked to Dimension Engineering, and they said it is possible that the 5v BEC or the Processor on the controller could be damaged, and this could also lead to some of the weird behavior I am experiencing.
Thanks for the pictures: the connections between the Arduino and the Sabertooth seem okay, but we don’t see the power supply or motors…
When you say the right motors are turning by themselves when the Arduino is disconnected/off, are you powering on the Sabertooth with the Arduino disconnected, or the Arduino is connect at first and then you disconnect it after power is applied? Also, has the Sabertooth always done this or was it working properly at first and something changed?
