sabertooth 2x32

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

hello,

new to electronics and the forum and had a couple of questions:

  1. I have made an RC controlled push mower using the sabertooth 2x32 and the FS-ct6b transmitter and everything works flawlessly. My question is What is the kangaroo x2 board and what could it possibly do to help/improve my lawn mower setup?

  2. with my current setup for my lawn mower what would it take as far as hardware and software to add GPS capabilities where I could map my yard and the mower would cut it automatically. I know thats a loaded question but if someone could lay it out for me.

Thanks…

2

Hi,

  1. The Kangaroo x2 Motion Controller let you add position and speed control to your Sabertooth. You can connect your motor’s encoders (or any other feedback device as limit switches, potentiometers, etc…) to the Kangaroo board and you can easily have a speed control on your mower. You can use this board if your motors don’t rotate at exactly the same speed causing the mower to deviate slightly. Therefore, controlling the speed of each motor with the Kangaroo board attached to the Sabertooth, you can have both your motors running at the same speed for the mower to go straight. Please take a look at the Kangaroo board’s datasheet for more information on how to use it.
  2. You can use an Arduino Board with a GPS Module/Shield but this will require some advanced programming skills and won’t be too much accurate for your application if your yard is not too large.
    Instead, you can use this RobotShop Perimeter Wire Generator and Sensor Soldering Kit. You can limit your yard with a perimeter wire and use this kit with an Arduino board to keep your mower inside the surface delimited by the wire.
    A generator board will be connected to the perimeter wire to send a square wave with a specific frequency and a sensor board mounted on the mower and connected to the Arduino board to detect the perimeter wire based on an amplified tank circuit.
    Check this blog post for more information.

Hope this helps,