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Unread 06-11-2005, 20:16
sciguy125 sciguy125 is offline
Electrical Engineer
AKA: Phil Baltar
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Re: DARPA style RC car... sorta

First off, you need to figure out what is powering what.

I presume that since the radio reciever is powered from the speed controller, it outputs voltage on the PWM cable. However, you should verify this first. Connect a cable to the speed controller and turn it on. See if there's voltage between power and ground (red and black, respectively) on the cable. If there is NOT voltage, you shouldn't have any problems with just plugging it in. If there IS voltage, I see two options.

1.) Somehow disconnect the red wire when you connect the two devices. It's generally not good to connect two seperate power supplies together, hence, you don't connect them. But, as long as they have a common ground (black wire), they should still play together nicely.

2.) Run the BOE bot controller off of the speed controller's supply. This is the better option. I'm not personally familiar with the controller, but you should be able to find a way to run it off of the power coming in on the PWM cable. Depencing on how it's designed however, you might need to splice some wires. Before you do this, however, make sure that it's giving you the proper voltage.
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