i was (still am acutally) for getting my starter kit. I put it all together. Soldering was a b**** lol
anyway, i am facing a problem, 2 acutally. the servo responds to the code and one motor does as well, however, the other does motor not and the "eyes" do not respond.
I did some troubleshooting, i unpluged the motor that works and pluged the one that does not work instead, and it works fine. So i immideatly concluded that I probably screwed up soldering. Similarly I am assuming that I did not solder properly the pins where i plug the eyes.
First, i want to know is it possible that i may have overheated the areas where i was soldering? if so, does that mean that i have to get a new board? I wanted to remove the pins and solder new ones but 1- no sure how to de-solder and remove 2- not sure even that would work. How can I know if the board is the problem, or the pins?
For the eyes, can I solder a 3rd pin on row 1 and plug it there instead of row 0 (where it is to be connected as per the tutorial)? If I can do that then I think I can still come up with an idea where I can move it using one motor. No second motor and no eyes = very dead end :'(
i really dont want to order a new board because shipping to where i am at is a killer (about 90 bucks) and i really really dont want to spend 90 just for a board
You should read up on how to use desoldering braid. You should be able to search for desoldering braid or as the picture suggests solder wick.
The above is just a photo example of what I am talking about. From my experience with it, it is some wonderful stuff when you need to remove solder. :)
I think I am going to buy that today and test it The funny thing is i saw it a few days ago and thought to myself i am not going to need it and totally forgot about it
i did not even know they existed… honestly i was going to reheat to melt the solder and remove the pins but deep inside i knew that this is not right. I will try to find out where they sell them here. Thanks!
okay cool. As long as it not the board, i think everything else can be fixed. From your experience, do you think I can just add a pin for row 1 and use it instead of 0. Will that be okay?
on Calculon’s first Picaxe board, he accidentally soldered his a and b together. When he tried to desolder it with braid, it ended up removing the copper tracings from that part of the board. He had to make his own external h-bridge and connect it. But it doesn’t look like that is the case for you.
Have you tested your non-working motor with direct voltage?
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee i think i got them all fixed now… I will give u guys the details of my epic screw up later (very embararssing, so i am trying to hold off telling u till y’all forget about this looool)
As soon as i have it put together again and up and running i will do a vid and will let u guys know
questions about the code in the start here tutorial
Okay, just so that I am not just parroting (copy pasting without understanding), the code starts by
Symbol dangerlevel = 70 ’ how far away should thing be, before we react? symbol turn = 300 ’ this sets how much should be turned symbol servo_turn = 700 ’ This sets for how long time we should wait for the servo to turn (depending on it´s speed) before we measure distance
main: ’ the main loop readadc 0, b1 ’ read how much distance ahead if b1 < dangerlevel then gosub nodanger ’ if nothing ahead, drive forward else gosub whichway ’ if obstacle ahead then decide which way is better end if goto main ’ this ends the loop, the rest are only sub-routines
so in human terms the above translates into if the current distance is less than 70 then drive forward. But should not it stop if the current position be less than 70 (or whatever value) while it should move forward if the distance is more than 70???
I was able to follow the code and understand it (it is easy to understand) but i am not sure i really understand the less than move forward.
While I am not sure on exactly how the Sharp responds,
I know you could be confusing a smaller number from the Sharp for a closer distance, that may not be the case. Your best bet, if you can, is to hook the Sharp up to your PICAXE and then while connected to the PICAXE look at the numbers the Sharp spits out as you move your hand closer and farther away. Realize that the Sharp as a threshhold distance of about 3"(?) that the response will reverse its count and start responding as though you were moving farther away from the sensor. What I am trying to say is that the closer the output gets to 0 ‘could’ mean that it is sensing farther and farther away.
you should have seen the big energy saving (for the enviormental friendly lmr-ians hehe) light bulb that lit up when i read your message hehe
i was pretty surprised and impressed by how accurate it is with detecting distnaces. A distance of 70 is pretty darn close, i never thought it would let things get this close. I was very impressed.
i captured it on video but it seems the “body-kit” is rubbing on one of the wheels as it moves becuase it keeps curving to one side. Easy fix, a new body kit is gonna solve teh problem hehe.
Thank you so much for your insight and tip… really apperciate it
Your problem may be that one motor is not turning as fast as the other. Leaving you with a robot that will arc rather than track straight. Your next project, before a sumo bot, may be learning how PWM on a motor drive pin can affect a turn. It is really too bad that Revolution Education did not bring the Enable lines from the motor driver to the PICAXE. You could then use the microcontroller(uC) to enable/disable or send PWM and control the speed at which a motor turns. I would imagine there are some turtorials or just simply projects here that explain what I am talking about. With your board though, you will have to put a PWM signal on at least one and preferrably on one pin on each motor. That way you can control the speed and make it arc in either direction, or, travel straight.
PS: You got video of your bot and didn’t add it to the robot’s page? FOR SHAME! LOL It is just wrong to not have some video up of your bot.
i did not even know that this is possible. At first i thought my batteries were not pwerfull enough to run the bot, then i kind of thought (or maybe i just wanted to look for an easy fix) that it is a body-kit problem. I very much agree with you, i think i should try and figure out the pwm thing before sumo-ing it. I try to raed about electronics as much as possible but often times i find myself overwhilmed with info. One minute i try to learn the basics so that i understand what goes on at a basic level (like this whole PWM thing, i probably would have known something like that is possible had i had my basics or basic-higher-than-basic knowledge of electronics) and then the other minute i am trying to figuer out what is on my board or how to code.
the good news is that I tomorrow is my last working day before a 5 days holiday. So i will try to go at it and read read. I even got me a “for dummies” book “Electronics for dummies” hahaha
actually the video is very low quality… mainly a lighting issue… one bulb was fried (i knew it was fried but never bothered replacing it all this time). It is wrong not to post a bot vid… i very much agree. I just want it to look sexy to make up for its simplicity hehehe
