RC Beach Wagon Assistance

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

I am new to rc/robots and converting my electric beach cart to RC, and selected the 2x60 as it is powered by two wheelchair motors and I wanted to control them both. I had made my own Y-Harness to have one rc channel connect to the S1 and S2 inputs to control the motors, I also had it set to RC w/mixing, but I tried both modes. It will only spin one motor originally, and now it won’t get the brake to release and spin one motor. It does click like they’re releasing though. I wired the brakes to the motor outputs because the voltage matched, but perhaps the current is an issue?. It now gives me a motor 1 overcurrent. When I try to spin motor 2 with motion studio, it does not move.

My current configuration is :

2 x 24v quantum wheelchair motors w/ brake
Spektrum Dx3 controller and receiver
Roboclaw 2x60
of course the batteries/circuit breakers and switches necessary.

The wheelchair motors have an electromagnetic brake, which I tested beforehand, applying 24v to them and they released, both wires were black, so polarity didn’t seem to affect operation, as I reversed it to check.

I connected the roboclaw to MotionStudio and updated the firmware as well to 4.2.2.

I’ve attached some photos and a video from when it was functioning correctly.

Any help would be great. I don’t want to differentially steer, I’d like to have throttle control both motors and the steering channel control the linear servo I have, like a giant rc car vs. a tank.


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1 Like
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@JacksonHandy Welcome to the RobotShop Community. Questions include:

  • How do the brakes work? On without power and Off when voltage is applied?
  • How much current do the motors need? Do you have a torque vs. current curve?
  • How much current do the brakes need and do they need it continuously?
3

Thanks for the reply.

They appear to work as you mentioned. Voltage off, brakes on. Voltage on, brakes off.

I don’t have a torque current curve, electromotive wasn’t super helpful when I emailed them. I’m not 100% on the current required. I just went ahead and removed them from the motors to get the wagon functional, which it is now. I have to lookup the parts and see if I can find a current requirement. They are 24v though

Basicmicro suggested that I use their voltage clamp and separately power them through it using another pin from the roboclaw for the pwm signal. So I ordered that and will test the brakes on their own with it.