Victor Calibration

[railerobotics]

I am trying to calibrate our speed controls for pwm 13 and 15 instead of 1 and 2, but when I try to calibrate them the never blink red and green. They only blink orange.

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

I am trying to calibrate our speed controls for pwm 13 and 15 instead of 1 and 2, but when I try to calibrate them the never blink red and green. They only blink orange.

Check and make sure the PWM connectors are pushed in ALL THE WAY, it may seem like they're in all the way but actually just barely in. I believe they will only show about 1/8th inch sticking out of the speed controller when properly installed.

If I understood you another option might be that you didn't hit the calibrate button?

-Mike

[railerobotics]

The speed control pwm's are all the way in and I could feel the calibrate buttons depress. When I switch the pwms back to 1 and 2 the speed controls calibrate just fine but when I switch to 13 and 15 they wont calibrate.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

I am trying to calibrate our speed controls for pwm 13 and 15 instead of 1 and 2, but when I try to calibrate them the never blink red and green. They only blink orange.

It sounds like what you want to do is change the default programming to position the PWM output to a different set of pins. You can only do this in software.
Calibrating the speed controllers allows you to utilize the full range of motor control based on your joysticks. When you hold the calibrate button in and move the joysticks to the full extent (full forward, full reverse, full forward, full reverse, and then let the joystick return to rest before releasing the calibrate button) you have now instructed the controller to modify it's decoding to recognize what you send will now be full range. After calibration, full forward on the joystick will give you a full 12 volts at the motor, a full back on the joystick will give you reverse 12 volts at the motor and when you let go the speed controller will send no voltage to the motor.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

I am trying to calibrate our speed controls for pwm 13 and 15 instead of 1 and 2, but when I try to calibrate them the never blink red and green. They only blink orange.

Do you still have the call to Generate_Pwms(pwm13,pwm14,pwm15,pwm16) in your code? PWM13-16 are different from the rest and won't work without this call. It should be at the beginning of Process_Data_From_Master_uP().

[railerobotics]

Thanks it worked. Now how do I make the motors spin. Everthing's hooked up correctly.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

Thanks it worked. Now how do I make the motors spin. Everthing's hooked up correctly.

You need to get a little more specific. Did you now get the controllers calibrated or did you take Dave's suggestion and correct the code?

[railerobotics]

Sorry, I corrected the code.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

OK,
So I am guessing that you calibrated the controller and the you are seeing the appropriate Red and Green LED at the joystick ends. If you are not getting the motor to move be sure that the motor leads are solidly attached to both M+ and M- on the controller. You cannot return the motor common (black wire) to the common ground of the robot. It must return to the speed controller.

If you did not calibrate the controller after you made the software change, you must do so now. When you calibrated the controller before you may have confused the controller input range.

[railerobotics]

THe speed controllers work fine but the motors do not spin. I'm guessing its a programming problem so I'll post a question there.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

THe speed controllers work fine but the motors do not spin. I'm guessing its a programming problem so I'll post a question there.

If the LED on the controller goes from Orange to Green or to Red (indications that the controller is putting out full power) then the controller is working. If the motor is not turning under these conditions, then the wiring to the motor is defective. Suspect a bad crimp or a crimp over the insulation and not the wire. As a quick check, a voltmeter should show +12 volts when the controller LED is full on Red or Green. There is another possible problem. If you have wired the circuit breakers in place as shown in the robot power distribution drawing (of course you have) and you hear a buzzing noise after you have pushed the joystick full forward or reverse, then the motor is stalled. Try to wire any motor that is not mounted on the robot to the controller instead of the one you are trying to drive. If that motor turns, then you should suspect motor wiring or a stall condition on the motor that is installed.

[railerobotics]

It was a programming problem