I hope the motor controller is still OK. That’s a $60.00 board! I’m not getting any weird behavior or error indication from it.
I can’t afford to replace anything until next month.
8-Dale
I have W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0 on the bench today. Right now, his batteries are charging.
I have a brand new RoboClaw 2x5 motor controller to test with him today.
I only have three Raspberry Pi boards now, and they are all in various projects (The SES Rover, Programmable Net Camera, and Wireless Remote Robot Controller) already. I need to get something to put on W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0, so this may be a great excuse to get an UDOO Quad with camera, and start testing with that. I’m also tempted to get one of the new BeagleBone Blacks and go with that for awhile.
I have three BeagleBone Blacks that don’t work now, and I don’t know why. 
This doesn’t seem reasonable.
8-Dale
I’ve been working on W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0 all day today. I’m rebuilding him into a three deck robot now. I got the SES holes placed properly on the bottom deck yesterday, and drilled them out. I already have the front sensors and pan/tilt sensor unit transferred to the bottom deck, and the motor mounts are mounted.
Today, I played with the RoboClaw 2x5 Motor Controller and two of the GHM-04 motors with QME-01 quadrature encoders I have. These are the motors I installed the encoders on, without assistance, so I am very pleased they are working This is the NEW RoboClaw 2x5 I recently received.I also created a nice little motor controller test sketch that runs the motors forward (positive speeds) and in reverse (negative speeds) for 10 seconds each. I also have the encoders connected, and believe I am getting reasonable and correct data from them. 
I still have to test my original RoboClaw 2x5 and the other two GHM-04 motors with encoders. I will do that tomorrow.
This is a MAJOR leap forward in progress for W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0!
I am shooting a sequence of construction pictures for this rebuild, as I go, and will post some of them soon.
8-Dale
Hi Gang!
Here is a current picture of W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0 and a small status update.
The SSC-32 is also connected to the Arduino Mega ADK.
The motors and original Robo 2x5 motor controller are working now. I believe I am getting valid data back from the encoders also.
I’ll be testing servos and sensors today. I still have to get a proper caster put on the back, and adjust the front caster height to match the current wheels. I am trying to get W.A.L.T.E.R. ready to go so I can take him to the DorkBotPDX meeting this coming Monday. I am mostly working on code now, which is up to almost 2800 lines of Arduino C/C++ now. I am very close to having all three of my robots working now! I very much want to take them all to OSCON next month!
8-Dale
A friend of mine came over and added the new rear caster to W.A.L.T.E.R. After I adjusted the front caster to be the same height, W.A.L.T.E.R. can sit level. I’ll be able to do live testing with him now.
8-Dale
Nice caster… lol
Always nice to find something that fits well.
I’d like to put one of those on the front as well (I have another one), but there is no room for it because of the front pan servo.
8-Dale
I’ve been having a LOT of problems with my SSC-32 servo controllers - specifically, the power connection terminal blocks. I need servo controllers for W.A.L.T.E.R. 2.0 and the SES Rover now though, so am looking at possible replacements.
Right now, I’m looking at the Pololu Maestro servo controllers, and am planning to order two of the 24 channel units. In terms of just the number of servo channels that are available on this one, these are more expensive than the SSC-32, but they also have a pretty nice feature set. I’m in the process of reading the manual for these now, to see if they will fit well into my robots or not. I just can’t afford to be blowing boards that cost $39.95, so I just need to stop using the SSC-32, at least for now. The Pololu servo controllers appear to have larger terminal blocks and, if this is the case, they should work much better for me.
The SSC-32 on W.A.L.T.E.R. now seems to be feeding power back into the Arduino Mega ADK board when I connect it via the TTL serial port. I don’t think this should be happening, and don’t know where the exact problem might be. I’m not blaming any component at this point, because I just don’t know what is going on. If I leave the ground wire unconnected, this does not happen. I’m going to have to completely test the rest of the SSC-32 boards I have, and see if there are any that are still working. I think the one on W.A.L.T.E.R. now is my last one though.
I still believe the SSC-32 is by far the best servo controller on the market, but it doesn’t hurt to try something else out once in awhile.
8-Dale
Yeah, the SSC-32 board might feed power if you don’t power up the Arduino normally.
Tip:
Solder a short piece of .025" wrap post to then end of each of the power wires, then cover all but about 1/4" of the exposed post with shrink wrap. You can then make a good solid power connection.
Alan KM6VV
I’ve been going through some difficult times these last few months, including being without a home for the past three months. I’m also preparing for a major move to San Diego, which should happen in January. All of my robotics and electronics stuff is packed up and in storage, ready to be shipped as soon as I am settled in San Diego.
Anyway, I am still here.
8-Dale
You might be sad with all those hidden in a dark box…
Hope everything is fine with you and it’s nice to give a little “Hello i’m here” message… 
I have really missed tinkering with my robots, and have collected many new ideas. 8-D
I haven’t been able to access these forums for awhile. As soon as I get paid next, I am moving to the San Diego area, where there is much more robotics. I am looking forward to this move, and getting back to tinkering!! 8-D
8-Dale
I am now in San Diego!! I have been here since January 5th. It has been somewhat difficult, but things are improving for me now. All of my robotics and electronics stuff is still in Oregon, and I have not figured out how to get it all into a storage locker down here yet. I have 30+ boxes of stuff I need to get shipped down here, and that is going to be expensive. I do have some robot stuff here, but no way to program it. I do not have a working laptop here. I will be reading these forums again, now that I have a decent phone.
8-Dale
Nice to hear from you and hope things will start to be good in you life.
Hello everyone!
I just moved into more permanent housing last week! I am down in Bonita, CA, which is just north of Chula Vista. I am sharing a room with another guy, and there are four other guys living in this house. Only one of the other guys, Nick, has any computer expertise though. Now, I am trying to figure out how best to get all my electronics and robotics stuff (30 boxes) from Oregon down to here where I am. We do have an older Windows 7 PC here, so I have been starting to tinker with electronics again. It’s costing me $70.00/month to pay for the storage of my stuff up in Oregon, which I could be spending on other stuff.
I have some robotics stuff I bought at Radio Shack, so I have one robot I can experiment with now. I just have to get a package of AA batteries for it. Radio Shack partnered with Make to create these kits. It’s interesting that these kits use motors through out, instead of motors for locomotion only and servos for everything else. The software examples they have for each of the ten possible robots I can build with these kits are not even worthwhile.
I have an Arduino Mega R3, a BeagleBone Black Rev C, and a Raspberry Pi 2 here now. That’s a nice selection of current boards to tinker with. I got the BBBlack in a starter kit. I had to modify the chassis layout a bit to fit the Mega onto this little robot, because the Mega is so much longer than the UNO. I have an idea to use three RGB color sensors to allow the robot to track lines of different colors, and to allow it to tell when it has encountered a path of a color different than what it is currently following.
I have also chosen an MSI laptop I want to get at some point. It’s a single core i7 @2.7GHz, with nVidia 960 graphics, a 1 TB 7200 RPM hard drive, and a 17.3" full HD screen. My current priorities are getting a monitor for my BBBlack and rPI2, and then getting all my stuff from Oregon down to here, so the laptop will have to wait awhile. I do have Putty and the Arduino v1.6.5 IDE installed on this slow computer, so at least I can tinker a bit. I even installed Git and cloned a couple of my robot repositories.
Well, that’s all I have for now!
8-Dale
Welcome back!
Feel good to know you are back on track.
The MSI seems pretty good, when are you going to put Linux in dual boot ?
Thank you! It’s been a very long road getting here. This will not be my last residence in the San Diego area, but it is certainly a big step towards getting where I want to be, up in Oceanside. I won’t have as much money to spend on electronics and robotics, so it will take me longer to build up what I want. Until I can get all my stuff from Oregon down here, my tinkering will be somewhat limited.
I am very anxious to get back to working on W.A.L.T.E.R., and have some very cool additions I want to make to him.
8-Dale
It will be awhile before I can get to this stage. I have not got the laptop yet. I won’t be able to spend as much money on this stuff as I used to, because I am paying a little over 1/2 my income just for rent down here.
I am getting back on track though.
8-Dale