Hello,
Here is what I’m trying to do. I want to send joystick commands via rs-232 and then receive the the joystick commands and use them with a motor controller such as the Pololu TRex. I like the Trex and it has some RS-232 functions built in already but does not work with what I’m trying to do. If there are products out there already that you can guide me to that would be greatly appreciated. One of the pololu Techs suggested i program a PIC but I’m new to this and don’t know anything about that. Is there anyone out there who can do this? Thanks for looking and any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the reply.
What I’m trying to do is the 3rd option. Using an analog joystick and motor controller. Reason I am converting to RS-232 is because I need to send these commands over Fiber. I want to control the robot from about 500 feet wired using the fiber optic cable. I have an RS-232 converter to Fiber that works for this but i don’t know how to get my joystick commands across. Are there motor controllers or other devices that can do this? Thanks again.
This boards look interesting…Looking at the RoboteQ SDC2130 and it seems like it has everything I’m looking for. Question, Do i need to purchase 2 of these one for the joystick end and the other for the motor end?
Which of the following are you trying to do?
- Computer joystick -> Motor controller
This is not really easy and if you’re new to robotics, we suggest not even trying this approach.
- Computer joystick -> Computer -> Motor controller
This is fine, but you’ll need to create intermediate code to read the RS232 values (and understand them), then send commands to the motor controller (via RS232 or USB).
- Analog joystick -> Motor controller
This is by far the easiest approach and uses analog values rather than RS232. Essentially each axis uses one potentiometer and you can do skid steering etc.
- Analog joystick -> Computer -> Motor controller
You’d need an intermediate circuit to read the analog values and send them to the computer. After that, see #2.
What’s your final objective?
Yes, there are controllers like those from RoboteQ which can interpret RS232 joystick commands directly because they have an onboard microcontroller. If a motor controller has a microcontroller onboard, we tend to refer to those as “robot controllers”. These can indeed accept RS232 signals and control motors, but the vast majority need to be programmed to do so (not out of the box like RoboteQ).
It’s a dual motor controller, so it can control two motors. You determine how the joystick controls each (refer to the user guide) - you’d only need one joystick and one SDC2130.