my name is Romain i have to build a robot for a school project, i want to create a car with 2 wheels at the rear of the vehicle and a plastic ball in front. I want that when the robot see an obstacle one wheel stop so it turns on itself. I bought a distant sensor here ( robotshop.com/en/sharp-gp2y0 … -10cm.html ) but he send a numerical signal and i don’t know how to us it so it would only stop a engin. I know how to place it in a electric circuit but i don’t know which electronical device to connect to the sensor to cut the power. maybe you have as well a distant sensor able to cut and release a power supply to one of the wheel engine?
thank you in advance for your answers and for your help
I forgot to mention that I’m due to deliver the prototype next monday (jan 5th) and I’m stuck with my design issue, any help will be greatly appreciated…
Romain
Bonjour,
Je m’appelle Romain et j’ai a construire un robot pour un projet d’école et je veux construire un robot roulant avec deux roues motorisées à l’arrière et une roue à bille à l’avant. Je veux que quand le robot voit un obstacle une des roue s’arrête pour que le robot tourne sur lui-même. J’ai acheté un capteur de distance ici (robotshop.com/en/sharp-gp2y0 … -10cm.html) mais je me suis rendu compte qu’il envoie un signal numérique alors que je voulais qu’il coupe le courant d’un moteur. Je ne sais pas quel composant électronique mettre après le capteur pour qu’il coupe le courant. Ou bien vendez-vous des capteurs de distance qui coupent automatiquement le courant et le relâche lorsqu’il n’y a plus d’obstacle?
merci d’avance pour vos réponses et pour votre aide
J’ai oublié de dire que c’est urgent et que je dois rendre mon prototype lundi prochain et je suis bloqué avec mon problème de design. merci d’avance pour toute aide.
Sounds like a great project. Can you give us more information about the other parts that you are using in your robot? What kind of motors and motor controller do you have? Are you using an Arduino or other type of microcontroller in your robot?
The sensor that you have products a digital on/off signal that indicates if an object is detected within its range or not. The signal is high by default and changes to low when something is located within 2cm to 10cm. This means that when the signal is high, you want both motors working, but when the signal transitions to low, you only want one wheel working.
If you have a microcontroller and motor controller, this would be very easy to implement in code. It is also possible to implement this without a microcontroller, but you would need to do custom electronics to connect everything.
Thank you so much for your help it is very much appreciated.
The purpose of the project was to prove that we can make a very simple robot with a very very short budget, so i was looking to have a little bot just rolling and turning when obstacles are in the way with no complex electonics, just electrical logic, no programmable units.
I haven’t got any micro controller just the motors; I was looking to pass the wire for the power supply for one of the motors directly by the sensor and use it to cut or pass the motor electric feed.
The motors I got are the GM9 - Gear motor 9 - 90 degree shaft, with 2 plastic wheels GMPW de solarbotics; direction in front and made with a pololu plastic ball of 3/4 inch.
The power is given by two 9V batteries (6LR or 6F type) 1 battery for one motor. I’m using as well 2 red DELs - one online for each motor in order to slash down the power a little bit.
I don’t know if it can help but a simple schema hand made of what I want to do is attached, can you help me with a single component I would add that would solve my issue and That I could buy on the website please ?
I’m not sure I understand: You want to put the LEDs in series with the motor to reduce the voltage to the motor from 9V to something lower? I’m not sure if you can use LEDs this way… I haven’t done anything like this before myself…
Or do you want to put them in parallel with the motors like your schematic shows? That won’t really reduce the power to the motors, so that might not give the effect you want. Also, your schematic shows the LEDs directly on 9V which will make them burn out… You would need to use some inline current-limiting resistors with the LEDs.
Also, the sensor’s output signal won’t be powerful enough to control a motor directly, so you would need to use something like a 3904 transistor to amplify the signal. The sensor also needs to be connected to GND (negative of battery) and a VIN between 2.7–6.2 V so you would need either a regulator or a makeshift power supply made with resistors. The output signal can then go to the transistor’s base, in a common emitter configuration, with the collector connected to the motor (and LED) and to the positive of the battery.
