Installing a Moto

[Roosevelt08]

Hi,
Im a student in the Advanced Physics class at Roosevelt High School. Our team a few years back left a base of a robot and it has been laying around. We took it and tried to make it out of something this year. We just ran into a problem. Myself and my partner know nothing about how to program this robot or attached things to it. All we can do it build to it and drive it. So i just added another motor to run a turret. I plugged the motor into a spike then connected it to power and the motherboard. (the ones next to the 4 that run the drive motors) All the new motor i added on does is run. How do i take control of the new motor so i can control it with a joystick?

Thanks,
Josh

[billbo911]

First things first. Welcome to Chief Delphi!
You will find plenty of people here who can help you out, all you need to do is ask.

So, the motor only runs. I can only assume it is running in one direction only.

If you plugged it into a "PWM" out put, that does not surprise me. You see, a Spike is a Relay. It will have one of three possible outputs: Full Forward, Neutral, Full Reverse. When you connect it to the PWM output, the +5v carried on the Red wire is telling it to go Full Forward.
What you need to do is connect it to the controller on a "Relay" output connector. Then you will be able to control it.

This is only one possibility, there are dozens more. If you want to be able to control it with variable speeds, bot forward and back, then you will need a "Victor" speed controller. It will be driven by a "PWM" signal. May I suggest that you contact a local team who can help you out tremendously!

Additionally, you could download the RC and OI documentation from Innovation First , aka IFI.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Roosevelt08

Hi,
Im a student in the Advanced Physics class at Roosevelt High School. Our team a few years back left a base of a robot and it has been laying around. We took it and tried to make it out of something this year. We just ran into a problem. Myself and my partner know nothing about how to program this robot or attached things to it. All we can do it build to it and drive it. So i just added another motor to run a turret. I plugged the motor into a spike then connected it to power and the motherboard. (the ones next to the 4 that run the drive motors) All the new motor i added on does is run. How do i take control of the new motor so i can control it with a joystick?

Thanks,
Josh

Spikes are on-off switches, in effect. You want a Victor speed controller. That'll solve most of the problem, other than programming. (For programming, EasyC ought to work.)

[Roosevelt08]

thanks, we will try to add a victor and see if it works. If it doent, then we might call UW because they have worked with our school before as mentors.