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Tutorial SMC3 Arduino 3DOF Motor Driver and Windows Utilities

Discussion in 'SimTools compatible interfaces' started by RufusDufus, Dec 1, 2013.

  1. MikhailSV

    MikhailSV New Member

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    (Technical translation) Hello. I would like to express my gratitude to the creator of this firmware and instructions. I made a budget 3dof platform of this instruction. Everything works well in SimTools Demo. But since I live in Russia, I had problems with purchasing a license. All payment methods from Russia are blocked by the United States of America and the European Union. Therefore, I downloaded the X-SIM program. And I wanted to ask here whether this 3dof firmware will work on Arduino Uno in X-SIM? For me, the program is complex and incomprehensible. I can’t set it up in any way. Please help me with the setup. Thank you.
  2. shankar sarkar

    shankar sarkar New Member

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    Please...may be i m missing something...wii you please guide me how i wire my 3rd motor.
  3. Attyla.pl

    Attyla.pl Active Member

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    Do not use a third motor, the arduino has limitations and controlling a third motor is inefficient. It is better to use a second arduino, all motion platform programs have support for multiple arduinos simultaneously.
  4. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Unless you modify SMC3 there is no impact on performance for the third motor. Still reads the analog input, still runs at 4k still does computation for the third motor. If you comment it out it will just spend more time in idle loop because the PID calculation relies on it being 4k.
  5. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Not sure what you mean. There are signals provided for all three motors you just wire it according to the documentation at the start of this thread.
  6. shankar sarkar

    shankar sarkar New Member

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    what i mean is - the diagram which i got from the diagram from the documentation of smc3 shows only two motors and 2 IBT-2 i was wondering about the third motor.. PWM will be the next one i.e. Pin 11 but the other two ?
  7. shankar sarkar

    shankar sarkar New Member

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    this is what i have

    Attached Files:

  8. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Literally the first page of this post.
  9. Pietbrok85

    Pietbrok85 New Member

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    The other pins are 6 and 7 on the arduino board when i am not mistaken.
    upload_2025-6-13_19-25-35.png
    • Informative Informative x 1
  10. shankar sarkar

    shankar sarkar New Member

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    I'M SO SORRY...no really i mean it... i straight went to the diagram never gave a look at the one you have shown...Thanks buddy.

    Regards

    shankar
  11. afrobbizz

    afrobbizz New Member

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    Hello the arduino uno r4 is working with smc3? Are there benefits to use that model?
  12. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    Not without modification. For example full power on Uno is 255 to PWM on R4 4096. A bigger change is that for Uno an int type is 16 bits R4 is 32 bits.

    Unless you want other changes there is little motivation to upgrade. These are fixable problems but simply making the cycle time faster is not going to make much difference. They have higher input resolution but you don’t need better accuracy so it’s not a benefit.
  13. Jer

    Jer New Member

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    Hi, do you have that SMC2 yet? I'm trying to see if building a rig will be possible, and I only want 2DOF. Thanks!
  14. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    You can run SMC3 SMCUtils for a maximum of three axis. Two or even one work without limitations.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  15. Jer

    Jer New Member

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    Oh okay, thank you! Also, does anyone have any ideas for cheap motors that I can use for a 2DOF sim with enough power preferably below $30? I don't want to spend too much on this, since it is my first time. Thank you!
  16. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Wiper motors are likely the cheapest easily available option, but are not very powerful and also require ground isolation: https://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/wiper-motor-mandatory-ground-isolation.25/

    Secondhand wheelchair motors are likely a better budget option, but you will need to hunt around for them, plus shipping would be an issue if you can't get them locally. My son picked up a giveaway powered wheelchair base for nothing!
  17. Jer

    Jer New Member

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    I found some wheelchair motors on eBay with a promising chance of working, but I have a few questions. I want to buy IBT_2 () but I dont know if it will handle a 24 volt motor without overheating. Any ideas? Also, I was wondering what common screw terminal to get, since Im knew to this electrical stuff, and I dont want any heat issues. Thank you!
  18. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    • Like Like x 1
  19. Joe Cortexian

    Joe Cortexian Active Member Gold Contributor

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    I have run ibt2 drivers for a couple of years at 24v. The issue is to get 2 good ones you need to buy 8 of them (I lost count). I also had a particular motor that the ibt2 would fail almost immediately on.

    I bought the 100amp driver which dead shorted after about 10 minutes of use taking my Uno out with it, so it’s kind of a crap shoot. I was surprised to actually get my money back from Ali Express.
  20. Jer

    Jer New Member

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    Ok, I got some cheap IBT_2’s, and I think I will just use a 24v fan to cool everything down.