Axon II and parts

[sprintf]

hello all,

i want the following to do some experiment...

Axon II
4 X bipolar stepper motor controller to interface with the robot controller
4 X resetter type IR sensors (that is a U shaped sensor with IR beam, interrupt un breaking the beam)
2 X light sensors
1 X quadrature encoder and spokes
4 X stepper motors (up to 2A continuous)
power supplies
cables for the above solution...

emailed trossenrobotics as they are the only resellers who sell the mcu and other parts however they have not got back to me for 4 days and have emailed 2 people so i dont think they are going to respond.

my question is what are the above mentioned parts which would be compatible with axon II

thanks very much

[Admin]

Download and open up the WebbotLib manual and search for each device:
http://webbot.org.uk/iPoint/30.page

It'll tell you exactly which devices have source code already written.

All sensors/devices are compatible with the Axon, but if its not in the WebbotLib manual, you may have to write a little extra code to get it to work (easy, if you know how to program).

[sprintf]

thanks for the reply mate...

i am comfortable with the programming side of robotics but wht i wanted to know was the electronics and physics compatibility of the components to go with axon II.

example if i buy a 2A max stepper motors and what driver should i use to interface with axon II, for beam breaking sensors and light sensors what modules are there that would be electronically compatible with axon II. i am a programmer and have some electronics knowledge but am looking for expert advice on the electronics compatibility...

what i am trying to do is to have a system setup such that 1 stepper motor is activate by a beam breaking sensor and the whole process to be activated by a light sensor, do you get my drift captain?

thanks very much

[sprintf]

1 sensor per stepper motor and the whole operation is triggered by 1 light sensor

[Cristi_Neagu]

For driving 2A stepper motors, i highly recommend the L297-L298 pair http://us.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/1734.pdf. I'm doing stepper motor drivers using those two ICs and i'll interface them with an Axon for a school project. They work very well driving the motors, but i have yet to control the with the Axon, because i'm having a hard time finding molex connectors.

Do note that if you plan on driving 2A steppers, the L298 will get pretty hot, so you'll need to heatsink it.

Good luck.

[Webbot]

Read http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/168

[Cristi_Neagu]

Read http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/168

I was just looking over that and i noticed several "errors" in the schematic for bipolar motors:
-the R7 trim pot is tied wrong. Right now it just acts as a resistor. I recommend it being tied as a voltage divider between +5v and ground (this happens with the unipolar schematic as well).
-R1 and R2 need to be bigger than 1/2 watt resistors, because the same current that passes through the windings is passed through them as well. I can't quite make out their value, but if they are 0.6 ohms, you will need 3W resistors (you should design the circuit for 2A winding currents, even though you might want to use just 1A per winding. If you ever change your mind, you need not replace those resistors; you might even forget you need to replace them, and that will be bad)

Good luck.