Can Victors work as ESCs without all of the other electronic components?

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by VEN

Is it as easy as buying one of those circuits, attacing a pot to it, on the other end the pwm and to the victor?

I'm not entirely sure. This isn't how I'd do it; I'd put a robot controller and operator interface on there. That way, you can do a cool drive system like you would on the actual robot, and it would look way cooler. You don't need any radio communications at all; grab a tether cable, tether the two together, and fire away.

On a side note, please put a cutoff switch somewhere between the battery and motors that's easily accessible. A rampant "FIRSTmobile" could be a very scary thing...

JBot

[Justin M.]

RobotLogic sells something called the IMX-1, which acts as a PWM signal booster, which runs inline with a PWM cable to operate Victors with standard RC equipment. It also mixes signals for one-stick driving, and uses a spare RC channel for inverted controls, which is useful in combat robotics if you get flipped over (assuming your robot can drive inverted), or to make backwards driving easier.

http://www.robotlogic.com/product_imx1.html

[Dad1279]

Do a google search on 'servo tester'. It is a relatively simple circuit.


Also certain PIC type processors have PWM on board circuitry. Try a search also on PIC PWM.

[Andy A.]

If you choose to use a supplementry circuit to generate the PWM signal, be sure to familiarize your self with the calibration routine. It is likely that a custom circuit will not output values that match those the Victor expects from the IFI equipment. Calibration will force the victor to scale the values, allowing you to set neutral, reverse and forward to values the circuit can produce.

This also goes for anyone using a Victor with hobby R/C gear. The factory calibration makes the assumption of using a PC joystick and an IFI control system. With out those, the factory calibration isn't even close.

-Local

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

I'm not entirely sure. This isn't how I'd do it; I'd put a robot controller and operator interface on there. That way, you can do a cool drive system like you would on the actual robot, and it would look way cooler. You don't need any radio communications at all; grab a tether cable, tether the two together, and fire away.

On a side note, please put a cutoff switch somewhere between the battery and motors that's easily accessible. A rampant "FIRSTmobile" could be a very scary thing...

JBot

Or....You can just have the robot controller on it if your going to go there route. I think all you need to do is set the team # to 0 or something like that. I have used the RC alone before, I just don't remember how I did it. I would say your better of spending 10$ on perfboard and a small microprocessor then just have somebody write code for you.

If you give more info on the project it would be easier to help. For example I can tell you to make an Hbridge, but I don't know if that would fit the project.

Or you can go to somewhere like pololu.com and buy there servo controller and buy a basic stamp and just use the serout command to send serial data to it. If you have the money for that i would say that would work just fine.

[DonRotolo]

If a simple search was done here on CD, you'd find THIS POST, see especially my post #34 on the 3rd page.