Tutorial SMC3 Arduino 3DOF Motor Driver and Windows Utilities

The SMC3 code at the bottom of the first post in this thread works fine with these boards without modification. There is a windows setup utility in the second post.

The wiring details are also in the first post, just look for the one that has a picture of your board - its under heading MODE1.

Dear RufusDufus,

Thanx for the info, I've understood already.
Another question:
There is another, different kind of wiring and code from
RacingMat (it is a bit newer version, from this february, this year):

https://www.xsimulator.net/community/marketplace/arduino-code-2dof-and-2-pins-direction-hbridge.67/

Is this also workable?
Am I right, if I want to use RacingMat's code, I have to work with his wiring and code,
not this thread's wiring and SMC3 code?

Thanx for helping me,
Regards,
George

Correct if you use racingmat's code then use his wiring details and support from his thread.

Hello @RufusDufus !
As we say...better later than ever... Congrats for your work!! Flawless! Maybe im just couple years delayed to say that?
The point is: im a very beginner on this comunity but very excited to get my first 3DoF ready to put my little daughter on top of it with me and shake around with roller coasters and others...
I will start from zero to use your tools also inspired by @SilentChill first 3DoF thread. Hope it goes smooth! I confess im a little confused at a first glance with your Windows tool full of beautiful buttons and graphics, but im sure time (and this thread, most likely) will tell me how to take it over in a good term.
One little question: as we are (as far as i understood) very close to have SimTools 2.0 released, will it causa any bad impact on your tools? If so, are you planning to adapt it accordingly?

Thanks!! Great day for all!

As far as I know SMC3 will work with Simtools2.0 unchanged.

I can confirm it does work perfectly with Simtools 2.0

RufusDufus,

Thanx.

Chhers,
George

May I ask why the motomonster pinout is not respected here?

I mean: motomonster is essentially an arduino shield, so it can be "piggybacked" directly over an arduino uno without the need for "complex wirings" ... we are dealing with 3 axs here, but the code could be used with two axis with very few solderings here with some different declarations like:

Code:

const int ENApin1 =7;  // ENA output pin for Motor H-Bridge 1 (ie PortD bit position)
const int ENBpin1 =8;  // ENB output pin for Motor H-Bridge 1 (ie PortD bit position)
const int ENApin2 =4;  // ENA output pin for Motor H-Bridge 2 (ie PortD bit position)
const int ENBpin2 =9;  // ENB output pin for Motor H-Bridge 2 (ie PortD bit position)
const int ENApin3 =11;  // ENA output pin for Motor H-Bridge 3 (ie PortD bit position)
const int ENBpin3 =12;  // ENB output pin for Motor H-Bridge 3 (ie PortD bit position)
const int PWMpin1 =5;  // PWM output pin for Motor 1 
const int PWMpin2 =6;  // PWM output pin for Motor 2 
const int PWMpin3 =10;  // PWM output pin for Motor 3

Am i wrong?

This could cause some conflict within the code (the Author used some direct port manipulation) but it would be nice to know

outrunner,

That's why I've asked about it, 'coz I just want to start my stuff's wiring, and
RacingMat has a different wiring and code here:

https://www.xsimulator.net/community/marketplace/arduino-code-2dof-and-2-pins-direction-hbridge.67/

This wiring of RacingMat like you just stack together the 2 cards, 'coz pins are at the same place, you don't have to solder, as you wrote.

So, guys please help me to decide what wiring and code could I use? SMC3 with more complex wiring or RacingMat's wiring with his own code?

Cheers,
George

Another interesting question:

I have this arduino R3 card, with LCD display:

http://eud.dx.com/product/high-qual...-1602-keypad-shield-kit-for-arduino-844379471

Is that possible to stuck first the LCD to arduino, after wire the moto shield from LCD's pins?
In this case I can put an easy code addon into the code to write the current axis datas to the LCD continously.
That should looks GREAT...
If it is possible - is there any latency to the moto shield 'coz of the LCD?

Cheers,
George

I think that changing the pinout declarations in the arduino sketch is worth a try: the worst case scenario is that nothing happen.

About the LCD, it's worth a try: the nicest thing of Arduino is the possibility to toy easily with sketches.

I am still in a evaluation stage (some components are on their way from china) so i'll be of no help for at least 3 weeks

outrunner,

Thanx, maybe I'll try.
Anyone else, who has been tried that LCD, or other pinout declarations, and codes?

Regards,
George

me too lol

LCD? SMC3 doesn't support any lcd screens. Or maybe I didn't understand what you tried to explain, could be a language barrier.

That code can handle an LCD with little modifications.

The point is: will libraries cnflict ith each other? Will the code perform well? It's only a matter of testing

@Pit

It is an arduino shield, you can just stack together with the arduino board.
In the code, you can just add a few lines in the cycle to write the datas, like axis 1,2
to the display.

Regards,
George

It's am arduino shield, but you must pay attention to the declared pinout. IIRW hooking a dysplay calls for 4-5 additional pins.

outrunner,

Sure, if the LCD uses just one of the same pin as SMC3's wiring, it shouldn't work,
maybe only as a 'slave' unit, but it should take some latency...in this case, not worth....

Chhers,
George

Just want to report a problem that I faced and a fix that worked:

I have six motors controlled by three Arduino's running SMC3 code. The code is modified to support Sabertooth packet serial mode , but the problem that I had is not relevant.

The issue was that when two motors controlled by a single Arduino were positioned so that their two potentiometers returned something close to 0V and 5v the Arduino analog input with lower voltage started to show terrible noise.

Re-wiring or adding capacitors did not help.

The problem was solved by modifying the code and using three consecutive analogreads instead of just one. It appears that in my case analog input with lower voltage needed more time to get a proper reading when another input had much higher voltage. Issuing multiple read commands took care of that.

Interesting. Maybe a (very) little delay after the analogread would suffice.

Out of curiosity, may I ask you to post your modified code for 6 axis?