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Author Topic: Toy Car Interface to Arduino  (Read 1769 times)

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Offline yashmitTopic starter

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Toy Car Interface to Arduino
« on: December 03, 2011, 10:24:00 PM »
All,

I'm a newbie for robotics and so my apologies if I'm asking a trivial question. I did try googling to find out the answer without any luck.

Using valuable information from "Robot Builders Bonanza" I hacked a remote controlled car and found out four resistors that control forward and backward motions of my two rear wheels. I've soldered four wires to these four resistors so that I can control these from microcontroller. Car has 3 AA batteries and I want to use separate power source for my Arduino board. I'm thinking of using 9V battery for the board.

My questions -
1. Since I'm using existing motor control circuit from my car I don't need any resistor to attach to the microcontroller pin. I can directly attach soldered wires to MC pins. Is this correct?

2. Do I need to connect VSS from my microcontroller to the -ve of my car power source? If not, what/how exactly do I need to connect power source from car and controller board?

Any help is highly appreciated as I'm currently stuck and at a dead-end!

Regards
-Vaibhav

Offline Redcap

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Re: Toy Car Interface to Arduino
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2011, 11:15:57 PM »
Hi Vaibhav,

What kind of motors are they? As this will change the answers.
If you're not sure what type they are, post a pic and I or someone else will be able to help you further :)

From what you've said about the 4 resistors, it sounds like they're DC motors.
In this case, I don't have enough knowledge working with them in combination with an Arduino to supply answers to Q1 or Q2, sorry :(

But yea, reply with the type of motors/picture of motors and someone here may be able to help you more ;)

Offline Redcap

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Re: Toy Car Interface to Arduino
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2011, 11:23:59 PM »
I will add, however, that if they are DC motors...

If you may like to use something like a Motor Shield for Arduino,
These links should help some:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/81
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMotorShield
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 01:05:05 AM by Redcap »

Offline Soeren

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Re: Toy Car Interface to Arduino
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2011, 02:48:22 AM »
Hi,

1. Since I'm using existing motor control circuit from my car I don't need any resistor to attach to the microcontroller pin. I can directly attach soldered wires to MC pins. Is this correct?
That depends on whether these resistors go to some kind of driver or directly to the motors, but I'd guess the former.
What are the values of the resistors?
What do they connect to?
What do you have to do/connect to make the motors move as it is?


If you have a multimeter, measure the resistors (if you haven't, do get a cheap meter ASAP, as it's hard to make any kind of electronics without a multimeter). If not, tell us the color bands/rings on the resistors.


2. Do I need to connect VSS from my microcontroller to the -ve of my car power source? If not, what/how exactly do I need to connect power source from car and controller board?
You need to connect Vss of the controller to the ground (0V) of the cars circuit. The reason I don't write the "-ve", is that I don't know whether your car has got some sort of a split supply, in which case "-ve" could be less than 0V/ground (although it's not very likely with a 3-cell battery).

If they're not interconnected, the signals will have no reference and will thus not control anything.
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

 


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