Looking for robot motor control
 

Does anybody know of any robot motor controllers (brushed) that have interface for a potentiometer so that it works like a servo? something like this:
http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar

It is so that we can have a powerful steering setup in the RC Barbie Jeep without getting a rediculously powerful servo. instead, I have the stock drive motor, a 540 size brushed motor(i think it's ~1250kV) through a 147:1 gear reduction, with a pin in it that will move the wheels.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ds/Photo35.jpg

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ds/Photo36.jpg

Why don't you use it as-is? Find a slower motor to give you better control, and just use a MM in Fw/Rv (0 delay) mode for control. You'll just have to remember to turn it back to center.

I dont wanna turn it back to center :lol:

I've used manual return steering on another project, its quite hard to tell when you have it center. Besides, I would then need limit switches or some other electrical stop to stop from oversteering and breaking my transmission

Wait a sec, I thought you knew robotics?!!? :mdr: It would be much easier to set up limits switches than rig a potentiometer to the gearbox. I think... :neutral: There is still the issue of returning to center.

the output gear is hollow, so a potentiometer can easily fit from the other side. It should take all of 10 minutes to do so. Then I just use EPA to limit it to where it will not over steer. The speed controller is accurate enough to consistently bring the motor to the desired angle and back to center many times over. I just don't happen to have $70 to spend on a speed controller. And unless I get high amp limit switches (~$25 a piece) and wire them in series normally closed to the motor wire. even then, there is nothing that would bring it back into operating range

theres no way to do this that i know of with out some coding involved.


.....the jaguar speed controls may work....but again itll need some programming. Unfortunantly even robotics speed controllers dont have a built in feature because....well....people who built robots are expected to program :lol:


BUT

look into stepper motor systems:yes: These are like the ones in your hard drives, built in position logic, but yes...you need special drivers:na:
o and they are brushless too :na: :na: :na:

I like the "Merry Christmas" written on the chalk board. :lol:

I was gonna say that. :yipi:

From reading up on the Jaguars, they do have input for a potentiometer and limit switches. I also remember hearing that the potentiometer input will control the motor as if it were a motor. I haven't been able to test the potentiometer function, but the limit switch functions work. you can plug in a fwd and reverse switch. when the foward switch is pressed, the motor will stop, and can only travel in reverse, and vice versa for the reverse switch. I'm not saying i can't program, i have been doing so for 2 years with FRC and vex, but then i would need a controller too

aww crap... the victor 883 just died on us, so now we have no more drive motor. Now we gotta find another speed controller capable of running 6s :cry:

and aren't stepper motors quite expensive too?

Not at all.

I used to be an avid RC flyer, and still listen to some flying podcasts (RC Flightcast, ATTF, and even InsideHeli), and on the "ATTF and Flightcast" podcasts, I remember back in one show, Frank, a host, bought a stepper motor for about 10-20 bucks, if not less.
Then again, this was nearly a couple months ago, and my memory is just pure crap.

And once again, this is for a "PhlatPrinter" which pretty much prints foam, from a Google Sketch-Up file.

Okay, done being stupid.

well, through alot of hunting on luminarymicro's website, I found the speed control does allow you to use the potentiometer plugged into the speed controller, but as of now, the only way I saw was if the controller was controlled by CAN, not PWM