Tutorial SMC3 Arduino 3DOF Motor Driver and Windows Utilities

I am trying to run the SMC3Utils application but keep running into the same error.

As you can see in the bottom right my commport is set to 3 because that is where my arduino is plugged in.

I have changed the comm port settings in the SMC3Utils configuration file and saved it. I have successfully compiled and uploaded the SMC3.ino file onto my arduino but when I try open the SMC3Utils app it just never established a connection with my arduino. Has anyone experienced this before? What can I do to fix this issue?
Just for reference I extracted the utils out of the zip folder (downloaded from the top of this thread) onto my local C disk. Not sure if there is a specific location that it needs to be in.
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!.

After wiping and reinstalling all SMC3 software I have managed to get the utils application to connect to my arduino board after loading it with the standard SMC3.ino code. My issue now is that I have to modify the SMC3 code because I am only using 1 motor and the encoder I am using is a rotary step encoder. I have had to connect my encoder to the Arduino as follows:

I have connected the CLK and DT to digital pins 4 and 5, respectively, since pins 2 and 3 are used for the enable A and B for my motor. However obviously pins 4 and 5 are used for enable A and B for motor 2.
I have written the following code that reads my encoder, scales it, and writes it to analog pin A0 (where the feedback pin should be according to SMC3.ino)

int pinA = 4; // Connected to CLK on KY-040
int pinB = 5; // Connected to DT on KY-040
int encoderPosCount = 10;
int pinALast;
int aVal;
int analogOutputPin = A0; // Use a PWM-capable pin, e.g., pin 3

void setup() {
pinMode(pinA, INPUT);
pinMode(pinB, INPUT);
pinMode(analogOutputPin, OUTPUT); // Set the PWM pin as an output
/* Read Pin A
Whatever state it's in will reflect the last position
*/
pinALast = digitalRead(pinA);
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
aVal = digitalRead(pinA);
if (aVal != pinALast) { // Means the knob is rotating
// if the knob is rotating, we need to determine direction
// We do that by reading pin B.
if (digitalRead(pinB) != aVal) { // Means pin A Changed first - We're Rotating Clockwise.
encoderPosCount++;
} else { // Otherwise B changed first, and we're moving CCW
encoderPosCount--;
}

// Map encoder position to the analogWrite range (512-1023)
int analogValue = map(encoderPosCount, 0, 20, 0, 1023);

// Constrain the value to the valid range
analogValue = constrain(analogValue, 0, 1023);

// Write the analog value to the PWM pin (e.g., pin 3)
analogWrite(analogOutputPin, map(analogValue, 512, 1023, 0, 255));

Serial.print("Encoder Position: ");
Serial.println(encoderPosCount);
Serial.print("Analog Output Value: ");
Serial.println(analogValue);
}
pinALast = aVal;
}

My question is how can I modify the SMC3.ino code to accommodate my encoder and only use motor 1 but still correctly activate the SMC3Utils application? I have tried just commenting out any code from the .ino file that is related to motor 2 and 3 but when trying to connect the utils application I get the following error.

This is obviously due to the fact that I have commented out any code for motor 2 and 3. I am wondering if this is possible to do using my encoder. Or do I need to have an absolute encoder that only outputs an analog signal on pin A0?

My Arduino rev 3 is working well to drive the Transecto motors with the 43A motor drivers. Ideally, I would like to run two motors with independent sine waves by modifying Windows SMC3 Utility to independently run them, with a phase factor offset between sine waves. Since it looks like the code is not available for public modification, have people found the C# SRS API easy to learn or am I better off with Python and a C# wrapper?
I have experience with Python, but none with Unity or C#.

Ps. I found this and the comments from "David" to be helpful at clearing up confusion on the 43A. http://www.hessmer.org/blog/2013/12/28/ibt-2-h-bridge-with-arduino/

I'm testing the motors before assembling the motion sim and I'm having trouble understanding the graph in SMC3, the blue line is the target but what does the light blue line mean and why in my case it doesn't go together with the blue like the pictures and videos of other users ?

Not exactly sure what the light blue line is but if you want your feedback line to follow your target line more closely I'd recommend upping the PWM signal. For my sim I only get near perfect feedback when my PWM is above 200 under full load conditions. Alternatively since your rise time seems to be delayed a bit you can try playing around with the PID parameters. Increasing Kp might solve your rise time issue but could introduce overshoot (which you can dampen by increasing Ki, although take care when increasing Ki and use steps of 1).

Sorry everyone, I am completely blind only now I noticed Chart Colors on the first page of this thread.
Ok, correct me if I write something wrong
- the light blue line means target (sent) which is, as I understand it, what operating parameters the arduino sends to the ibt2 controller
- the blue line target (recv) is what operating parameters are reached by the ibt2 controller
With proper operation, the two lines should coincide, which means I need to find the reason for the difference.
Do you have any hint where to look ?

(My setup, two wchelchair motors
My equipment is two wheelchair motors 24V 250W from GEBY , IBT2 motor controllers and arduino uno, so far I have broken 2 pieces of ibt2 I think that for this motor they are a bit too weak.)

view of engine operation

Introducing MAXlimits did not change the readings, I suspect the Arduino board maybe it is faulty? Tomorrow I will buy another copy and check. I have another question since the whole thing seems to be working correctly maybe don't bother with the Target(sent) reading and just keep building 2DOF

Hello everyone, first of all I would like to thank the creator(s) for this tutorial which I find brilliant
I followed the information to the letter for mode2 with the arduino uno R3 board and the two 43A IBT-2 controllers and I found myself facing a problem with motor 2 because it does not want to work.
In SMC3 motor 1 has no problems and when I start motor 2 on ON, it runs for 1 second and then switches to OFF.
I tested the IBT-2 controllers, the motors and the wiring, everything is ok but I always arrive at the same point, motor 1 ON and motor 2 off. have you ever faced this problem?

Turn on SMC3 Utils switch to motor 2 turn on manual mode and gently move the slider on the right side, show a screenshot of what the graph looks like.

yes the card is a real arduino uno R3 and I modified the code in mode2

I have discovered motors became hot to touch after run Dirt Rally 2.0 for about 15 minutes with these settings. Yes, I mean hot to touch is I can't hold the motors for couple of seconds.
I'm using IBT-2 (BTS7960) for all motors. As you all familiar with IBT-2 rated 43A 45v max. I'm running 40W 24V motors. The IBT-2 heatsink more hotter than the motors.
What causing these motors became hot? Do I max out the motors power?
I haven't yet measure the max torque of the actuator though.