Hi fellows,
I am using a electric wheel chair base with 2 24volt motors controlled by the sabertooth 2x32 motor controller. As well, I have bought the T8FB Radiolink RC transmitter with the R8EF receiver.
It’s all fun and games till the transmitter loses connection with the reciever and the 200lb robot just runs away. I’ve tried everything to keep the fail safe from working so I don’t kill anyone with a 200lb run away chunk of metal, anyone have any tricks?
I’m at the point of just putting a wired toggle on it which would be ridiculous. Went through turning off the failsafe parameters on the rc phone app and as well went on to the sabertooth site to deal with the priameters but cant figure it out…and as you guessed, I’m a newbie to bots and just love it so far. Is there a power cutoff switch that I need?
Hi Roadkill (nice name for a runaway killing robot…)
The best would be for you to set the failsafe at center position.
In this case the sabertooth should go limp.
We would also suggest using a better Transmitter / Receiver for such dangerous task like the AT9S or the AT10
Hi Eric, thank you for your response.
I just cant seem to get the fail safe to stop sending the saber orders to kill,…I mean to run. Lol. I have, on the app, set the F/S setting to 0 on the two channels I’m using to run the beast, should that be set to 50? I will take your advice and get a better trans/rec but I need the confidence that the thang will run and work for it’s intended use.(boat dolly/toy)
What should I be changing for the fail safe to stop kicking in? Sorry I’m just getting into robotics. I was a electrician for 10 yrs so the wiring and concept is easy to understand but the computer set up is a real son of a itch. Im afraid of I buy a AT10, I’ll just end up with a better quality transmitter/reciever in my hands while my bot is running all over town by itself. It’s worse than my exwife. Thanks for the help.
Kel.
Hi Kel,
To work the best i think you should put the F/S mode and values of 50 which is the center position.
That way when the signal is lost, the signal will be centered and the Sabertooth won’t initiate any moves.
To test this out, you can shut off the Transmitter.
Info from RadioLink user manual:
“FAIL SAFE”: F/S data,set responses in case of loss of signal or low Rx voltage(in percentage). Each channel can be set independently.
• The NOR (normal) setting holds the servo in its last commanded position.
• The F/S (Fail Safe) function moves each servo to a predetermined position.
• NOTE: the setting of the throttle’s F/S also applies to the low battery voltage.
• The F/S is used in certain competitions to spin the aircraft to the ground prior to flying away and doing potential damage elsewhere. Conversely, may also be used to go to neutral on all servos, hopefully keeping the plane flying as long as possible.
0 means throttle at the lowest position, 50 at the center position
radiolink-t8fb-manual-v2.pdf (2.11 MB)
Hi all,
Well after Eric suggested that I place the two channels I required at 50 f/s,…it didn’t work,…until I followed the directions of saving the data.
Lesson learned, I didn’t understand how to save the settings. Reread the directions many times and finally got it. May have took a few days to get it to work, but it was worth the struggle. Thanks Eric!!
Nice but no more killing robot…
