Power Issue Solved

Let's Make Robots
, , ,
1

Quote of the day:

Is my robot a cyborg, becouse it has blood sweat and tears into it?

Hello everybody,

Yesterday I put this robot together, but it has a power issue.

IMG_3403.jpg
IMG_3403.jpg375×500 46 KB



I used the script that was written for the german SH Robot.
The following happens after giving the motor shield 6 Volts (4x AA):
It tries to do everything it’s supposed to, but only if I keep it in the air. As soon as I put it to the ground it barely goes forward.
Now I’m only giving the motor shield power, but as soon as I connect the bot tho the computer by the USB cable to upload software, it has more power. So I wondered, can I plug in a 9V (6AA) battery pack to my Arduino UNO to solve the lack of power problem, or will this fry the board?

This is how the wires are connected at the moment:

IMG_3421.jpg
IMG_3421.jpg375×500 58.7 KB



Only 4AA batteries (bought them today) to the Motor shield.

As mentioned in the earlier Blog, it’s also possible that the motors are to heavy. These geared motors came along with the kit, and has the following written to it:

DAGU Robot DG01D 48:1

Forgive me if I’m asking stupid questions, I’m only working three days on this and that’s including ordering parts, reading on this website and assembling the machine. What’s logic to you might still be abracadabra for me.

So how to solve this?

Greetings,

Albert.

P.S. I know it’s a kit, but first I want the hardware to be setup in the right way, before putting it into a more original case :wink:

And the story continuous…

After getting some useful advice from different members I solved the problem. Instead of the 6V battery pack, I installed a 9V battery pack. Currently fitted with 6 1,5V standard batteries, but with the intention to replace them later on with 1,2V NiMh batteries. I connected the 9V battery pack to the Arduino Motor Shield V3 directly and nothing else to the UNO. Next thing is to learn some basic programming, so I can solve the problem with my sensor (script is for a Sharp 4-30 and mine is a Sharp 10-80). To be continued! And thank you all for all the kind replies.

Albert.

2

Hello OddBot

Thanks for the quick response. These are interesting facts. So if I understand it correctly, NiMh Batteries are 1.2 Volts, so in that case I have to use an 5 X AA Battery case to get the desired 6 Volts for the motors and then the power source wil be more continious… But the 6V will probably still not be enough to make everything run smoothly. Perhaps it’s possible, to use the 6 Volt pack for the Motor shield and should I use a seperate power source of 9V for the Arduino Uno itself. Is it possible to just plug in a 9V Battery Pack to the Arduino UNO V3 while it is conected to the Arduino Motor Shield V3 with a 6V battery pack connected at the same time? Or wil I fry the whole thing? What I intend to say is: Wil I have seperate circuits, or Will it be 6V + 9V = 15V and a lot of smoke? :wink:

Then the next problem wel be how to create 9V with NiMh batteries. For 6V it’s easy, just add one more battery, but for 9V it’s 7 batteries to create 8,4V but 8 will give you 9.6V…