Showroom Blame73's 2DOF Seat Mover

Hey,
how you all doing guys? It's been a while since I last post here on the forum...

Sadly (or luckily beacause I have one...) my new job takes me away from home for a lot of time and when I'm home I have little to no time for playing with the rig.
I'm not even using motion because I have a little welding to do for months now and am too lazy to do it

Anyway, calmer time will come for me to enjoy my simracing passion again.

I hope you all have great days/lifes!

After Arduino/MM and Jrk 12v12 it's time to try something new

Led PSU 50A 12V 600W
Sabertooth 2X32

I didn't think Sabertooths were this big, especially compared to JRKs

@Tim McGuire when putting a battery in parallel, does it have to have the same amps of the psu or could it be smaller (just for surge currents)?
I've got a small 20A from my Triumph and a huge 60A from a BMW

I don't think it has to match the rating of the PSU. It can't hurt putting the larger one on, but I'd imagine the motorcycle battery would suffice.

This time I forgot to update my thread with latest changes.
After I got the Sabertooth 2X32 I switched the PSUs from the DPS to the Led PSU + a moto battery in parallel with @BlazinH 's SMC3-SPS Sabertooth Packet Serial PID motor driver w/SoftStart
After one week the Sabertooth stopped working. I contacted Dimension Engineerig and they told me it could have taken a short and I've been offered a no charge repair (wow), but having to send it back to the USA I also contacted the reseller (RobotShop.com) that also was so kind me to offer me a free replacement even paying the courier for returning the broken Sabertooth. They sent me a brand new 2X32 even before I sent the broken one back! Thank you guys!!
Right now is working great and I'm enjoying my rig again (so glad I didn't sell it because now I'm having to travel for work less than before)
A pic I took with the phone today, I'll take some better ones one of these days:

Hey guys, it's been a while since my last update. I hope you're all fine and safe!

After a lot of time I found the time to take a look at my motion rig (because of covid19 I have to work from home and I can't travel).
I've been using the rig motionless because one line of the Sabertooth 2x32 wasn't working anymore, so I wanted to check if the one the used to work still does work, because the idea was to use it for traction loss.

I plugged the USB in and Describe and SMC connected correctly to the Sabertooth. potentiomenter was working too. But as I gave power to the motor... smoke came out form the Sabertooth's USB and bye bye controller.

I ordered two Cytron MD30C R2 (30A cont. 80A peak)
https://www.cytron.io/p-30amp-5v-30v-dc-motor-driver


Updates to follow.
Take care and stay safe!

Just got the two Cytron MD30C R2

As always a comparison picture against the JRK 12v12, the Sabertooth 2x32 and the Sparkfun MotoMonster:

I don't think I'm the most unlucky, I'm not the most lucky for sure
I run the PSU together with a 12V battery, I'll try to get a meanwell power supply to see how it performs.

Right now I have another problem:
https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/wiring-arduino-and-cytron-13s.14506/#post-196877

Do you have an idea why the ground wire could have that melting problem?

Ok, I should have fixed the problem.

Unlike the MD13S, the MD30C has to use MODE 2 in the SMC3 and the correct wiring is:

I tested it with one wiper motor I had from the first build of my rig and it's working fine, tomorrow I'll test it with my 23A motor.

I placed an heatsink on it but it didn't get hot at all even without it, let's see tomorrow how it goes under stress, but I'm leaving heatsinks anyway, I have nothing to lose doing so.

I had more time today and tested the Cytron again.
What I didn't noticed yesterday is that motors are running slowly in one direction.

I tried with wipers and 'big' motors, same problem. Swapping leads makes motors go slow in the opposite direction, so it's not a motor problem
I also tested it with different Arduino Uno and the problem persists, so I would say it's not the Arduino either...

Any ideas what the cause could be?

do they have an onboard pot ? maybe its not off

is theres a jumper on there that my disable the onboard pot ?


Edit closer look i see you have set jp6 and jp4 both to external, but jp4 when set to external points to the solder on pot at jp5 could it be that you need to remove the jumper completely?

i am guessing as ive not used these boards before

Yes, it's got an onboard pot but it's excluded via jumper (and anyway it's excluded when connected to a controller)

ok was just a guess lol have you tried to remove jp4 completely ?

I appreciate you trying to help me, thanks.

Sadly without touching anything the ground wire started doing the melting problem again, so I think the PSU to be the problem.
Having not used the battery for a long time now it's gone, so I must find a new battery (to try things with a battery alone) and then probably a new PSU

EDIT: The PSU was definetly the cause of the problem

A quick test of one of my new Cytron MD30C (R2) made with my old wiper motor (and Arduino UNO) before installing it on my rig where I have 23A 12V motors.

Don't mind how I installed the pot, it's just a quick test to see if it's all working the way it should.

I had to modify the base SMC3 in order to have it properly working with the Cytron controller, I'll public it later should someone else would be interested into using the Cytrons too.
Basically it wasn't working right on all the range:

Assembled the case for the MD30C and the Arduino, rebuilt all the wirings with more appropriate cables (AWG 10/12 and XT connectors).

First test with rig's motor: PASSED


I'm waiting for the new PSUs (and new hall pots too) to finish the job

Just been going through your impressivly long build log & it's quite the read. I've just started building a 2Dof myself and have been pondering my choice of motor drivers (IBT2's). They haven't arrived yet & I've been wondering on making a switch to a Cytron MDDS30 which looks like a 2 channel version of what your running.

Here's a link to it's manual if your interested.... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OstW8T0kRIopWSuMEOyG2h9KNhQ3O4yowwjnp40Z23o/view

I did look at the sabertooth but I'm not really wanting to order from the USA right now just incase I fry it (equally they are pretty exspensive). I can get the Cytron in the UK and it's slightly cheaper but Im a little worried as there isn't much documentation on here about it. You mentioned having to modifiy SMC3 to get it to run & I'd be interested in what you had to do. Hope the rigs still running too

Hey,
sorry for you having had to read all of my 'path through the motion sim world' Arduino, Monster Moto, Jrk, Sabertooth and now Cytron...
I had seen the MDDS30 while I was browsing their web site but I'm not sure I remember why I went for two MD30C. Maybe because of the DIP switch and maybe because I would have needed a new bigger PSU.
Going back I'd go for this MDDS30, also because I had a faulty PSU that it's 99% the cause of my burnt Sabertooth so I'm buying a new PSU anyway...

The rig is still running , but I'm using it just for tests and for tuning Simtools with a temporary PSU (the old DPS 600PB + battery one motor at a time) till I get the new PSU.

Yes, I had to modify the SMC3 code because as you can see from two posts back it wasn't working correctly on one half of the range (forces were inverted). I'm going to share it tomorrow if you want to, I don't think it would cause any damages anyway.

Edit: oh, I had bought my Sabertooth from the UK, and they have a great support center
https://www.robotshop.com/eu/en/sabertooth-dual-2x32a-6v-24v-regenerative-motor-driver.html

Heh, glad to here you haven't had another burn out I was reading through the manual of the MDDS30 last night and found this....

MCU Mode
LOCKED ANTI-PHASE Motor stops when the input signal is 2.5V. Motor moves in one direction when the input is < 2.5V (0 - 2.5V) and in another direction when the input is > 2.5V (2.5 - 5V).
SIGNED MAGNITUDE AN1 and AN2 controls the speed of the motor. Motor stops when the input is 0V and run at full speed when the input is 5V. IN1 and IN2 is digital inputs and it controls the direction of the motor respectively.

And wondered if it related to the SMC3 issues. The manual for your board doesn't mention the option but I remember reading that SMC3 in Mode 2 had to reverse the polarity of the PWM (or something) in order for it to work with the IBT2. Anyways, thought it might be relevant.

When I googled the Sabertooth, google gave me the RobotShop but for the US & I simply assumed that's where they were based :/ Think I will go with the MDDS30c either way as it's a little cheaper albeit it also requires a battery for the regenerative braking & yes it does raise questions of PSU choice and cable choice (it's potentially a lot of Amps in a single cable, peak 160 :s).