Tutorial SMC3 Arduino 3DOF Motor Driver and Windows Utilities

Set the Max limits to zero.

Hi Rufusdufus - thanks for the reply

do i do that in the arduino code or in the util program

SMC3 utility

took the sim for a drive today - hitting the curbs at high speed caused the sim to stop moving

is there something causing a shutdown based on the values in the sim program (Rfactor) being too big ?

hi noorbeast - i will post the links on my build thread - unfortunately i don't seem to get replies when i post there

Maybe most people did not understand that modifying the values on smc3 utility with arduino connected you go to changing the parameters of the software inside arduino i think that in this case if you set max limits to zero (Advice of RUFUS)
you should solve !!!

i watched the sim when it shut down - the motors did not move to max limits

I also had this problem with motor 2 then setting max limit to zero and clip input close to zero (braking zone before max limit) consequently PWM rev = 0 I solved, motor 2 stopped locking in random way too If it did not seem to exceed the limits

Then I did some tests for a fine adjustment, in my picture my settings:

Motore 2=Motore 1

Thank you for the assistance. I will try a change to the settings. I am using the igt-2 so i wonder if i may have tripped something in the hbridge.

I will try and get some time on the project tomorrow.

I see you p setting is quite big 400 mine is only 4 !

did some testing today - the I number in the pid was causing the trouble

settings are

P=40
I=1
D=0
S=1

is the arduino code actually shutting the motors down if we request too much movement ?

i tried rebooting only the motor h bridge and was unable to get motion back

where in the code does the motor shutdown ?

I've been working with SMC for a while now and can tell that both aggressive and mild settings are both bad and normally causing shutdown to the code " you can't beat physics where motors can't keep up with motion " ...

So, the best solution I found is ..... >> by using aggressive enough settings in the SMC Util. for each motor to barely keep tracking with the sign and triangle motion test + double the lowest DOF values in the tuning center in SimTools for the selected game ... by that you may get 90% smaller overall movements but still perfectly accurate with no shutdown for the code .

Hi together,

before I can starting with my problem -> I am using an Arduino Mega board! Is that a problem?

I have a problem with the BT-2 Setup, because my motor doesn't move. I have wiring up my BT-2 and Arduino like on the first page.

I have set the Mode to Mode2 and uploaded it to my arduino.

When I start the SMC3 Utility, I can see the PWM output, but nothing happens.

For testing, I have only one H-Bridge, Motor and Pot connected to my Arduino - hope that this is ok.
I did tested the H-Bridge, Arduino and Motor with another script, where I can control the motor with the pot and that's works - So, I have no idea what's the problem.

Can anyone help me? Would be great, because we finished the chair - only the electronic is missing.

Thanks and Cheers
Jochen

Make sure MODE2 is written in capitals...

#define MODE2

The SMC3 code ONLY shuts down the motors if the POT feedback signal goes beyond the Max Limits setting. If the POT feedback is not going outside these limits it's not the software - probably the H-Bridge drivers going into thermal shutdown or overcurrent shutdown.

Note if the SMC3 is shutting down the motors (you see the button in the top left of the SMC3Utils program say OFF) but you don't think the feedback is going out of range then you probably have noise in the system somewhere. A very short spike is enough for SMC3 to shut the motors down if the spike goes beyond the Max Limits but it might not display on the graph because its so short.

If the motors shutdown but SMC3Utils still says ON in the top left of screen then it is the H-Bridges shutting down or PSU or other hardware issue.

Yes, MODE2 is written in capitals. I think, that it is a MegaBoard problem. I found something about PORTD = portstatus; and that it will not work on a MegaBoard - so I have to wait for my Uno to arrive.

Hi @RufusDufus ,

thanks for the reply - i rebooted the ibt-2 driver and the movement did not come back

can you show me the line of code that shuts down the motors - i will get it to flash an led if the limits have been exceeded

(i have set the limits to zero using the smc3 interface)

should i shield the cables to the potentiometers to prevent noise ? can a high and low pass filter be implemented ?

regards

Hi at all,

so i tested a little bit around and searched for the problem with the PORTD mapping on an Arduino MEGA2560 and I found out, that I had to remap the PORTD.

So, I added this into the setup() function:
DDRD = 0B11111111;
PORTD = 0B11111111;
OutputPort =PORTD;

I set the digital pins 0-7 as output and as high. (Not sure if it is correct)

Then I have tested it again with the wiring diagramm from the first page.

The motor doesn't moved. So, I connected R_EN and L_EN to 5v. The motor moved, but only in clockwise. When I switched the RPWM and LPWM, the direction changed.

I would be interested in how you wired the h-bridge. I have a BTS7960 H-Bridge. I get only On or Off signal on the PWM Pin 9 - I can disconnect the Digital Pin 2, it makes no difference...

The code to switch the motors off is (duplicated for each motor):

Code:

if ((Feedback1 > CutoffLimitMax1) || (Feedback1 < CutoffLimitMin1)) { DisableMotor1(); } 

As you can see if the Max Limit is set to zero as you have done it will never switch the motor off (CutoffLimitMax = 1023-Max Limits setting). Unless of course the 10bit ADC can return a value greater than 1023 - haven't looked into that?

If you want to flash the LED add it to the if test immediately following the above code.
Yes shielded cables and/or capacitor on the input pin to GND may help depending on the source of your problem.