Arduino Open Source X-PID firmware incl.360°option

[Tombo]

Hi,
thanks for your reply. Ok after some hours reading on the internet i like to use gears. But how did i find out the size of the gears so that at 180° of motor movement the pot will turn 10 times? Is there a calcuator for gears or something?
And another Question, the 5v output of my arduinois just something about 4,5V so i dont get to 100% position in xsim so should i use another 5v powersupply for the pots like an pc psu?
sry for my Bad english

[Settingz85]

Hi,
thanks for your reply. Ok after some hours reading on the internet i like to use gears. But how did i find out the size of the gears so that at 180° of motor movement the pot will turn 10 times? Is there a calcuator for gears or something?
And another Question, the 5v output of my arduinois just something about 4,5V so i dont get to 100% position in xsim so should i use another 5v powersupply for the pots like an pc psu?
sry for my Bad english

So 180° is a complete motor turn and your pot should make 10 turns (which is 10 x 360° = 3600°). 3600 / 180 = 20. So u need a gear ratio 1:20 equal to 180:3600. Chosse i little lower than 20 (maybe 1:19,5 "as close as possible to 1:20"), so u dont over-max out your pot and brake it. I dont see any trouble with the lack of 0.5volts. Just wire the pots as described and you should do good. U can still adjust your min/max pot-movement through the x-sim software.
Remember, it takes some time to find the optimum settings for each simulator. Adjust your settings step by step.
And dont forget, iam a noob to sims as well so dont blame me if i say something wrong

[motiondave]

nice info settingz...thanks for that.
On my converted actuators, I had to use rc gears (didnt find jaycar gears till recently), however, they use almost one full turn of a single turn pot.
For me, this gave excellent resolution.
Still, I have a gear set up on the motors of my foot motor sim, 3.5 turns of a 5 turn pot, once again, excellent resolution.
I have found, and this is just me, that if you can use close to the full turn (s) of a pot, be it 1,3,5,10 turns, you should get excellent resolution for feedback.
Bob can correct me on this, but I couldnt really feel a difference between $4 single turns and $38 multiturns, when using a full turn.
Obviously more expensive pots would give better resolution, but I suspect you would need a scope to see the difference.

[Tombo]

Hi,
thanls for your reply. My Motors do Mode than180 degrees but pnly the 180degrees Mare needet to move the Sim. Because a 360rotation would make no sense.
But when i Set min and max in the Software i will loose some of the reachable Positions or did i understand something wrong.

[wptm]

Thanks for the pointers guys

I have managed get xpid/xsim/arduino to get the driver to drive one of the motors, using 2 pins.
It is a good to know that it works, since I wasn't really sure what would happen with boards from china
This driver may not be bad.

Next I need to figure out how to setup and attach the pots to the motor arm...!

I was not lucky, like you with the same H-Bridge. I have had smokes, and the wide lines have broken. The first wide line was burned when I pulled out the Arduiono's USB cable from the computer. I mean the motor driver was connected to the 12v car battery at this time and arduino was also connected.
I did not give up, I've soldered it. Then an other wide line became broken. I've repaired that also. After that I think it was working. Well, that means that when I pushed the Start HW Rescan the motor was turning a bit. Hence I suppose it was working. Maybe I connected false the PWM and IN, I'm not sure because there are only D1, D2, D3, D4 signed pins. The pot was connected during this. When the pot was removed it turned more, at Start HW Rescan.
And then, I have accidentally removed again the USB cable, when had again some smoke and fire. After that I could not repair it. At the end it was smoking at the transistors also. I think it's over *
Now, I'm thinking on to make Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge. My idea is, that when something goes wrong, then I'd be able to replace an element, etc.

Am I right that Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge is compatible with this Arduiono solution?

[RafBR]

U can still adjust your min/max pot-movement through the x-sim software.

How can we do it? I never heard about this x-sim feature

[sirnoname]

First post -> picture under "Test your PID controller with X-Sim".

You must not use that function!
There are enough solutions for a mechanical solution.

[NeoTokyoNori]

I was not lucky, like you with the same H-Bridge. I have had smokes, and the wide lines have broken. The first wide line was burned when I pulled out the Arduiono's USB cable from the computer. I mean the motor driver was connected to the 12v car battery at this time and arduino was also connected.
Now, I'm thinking on to make Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge. My idea is, that when something goes wrong, then I'd be able to replace an element, etc.

I didn't have too much of a problem while using it with wiper motors,
but I was playing around with a starter motor and the wires on the board have started to smoke.
I agree that the wires on the board, are not good enough to be used with the high current of car motors.

I am also thinking of Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge over the longer term. I hope it works with arduino!

[motiondave]

I was not lucky, like you with the same H-Bridge. I have had smokes, and the wide lines have broken. The first wide line was burned when I pulled out the Arduiono's USB cable from the computer. I mean the motor driver was connected to the 12v car battery at this time and arduino was also connected.
Now, I'm thinking on to make Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge. My idea is, that when something goes wrong, then I'd be able to replace an element, etc.

I didn't have too much of a problem while using it with wiper motors,
but I was playing around with a starter motor and the wires on the board have started to smoke.
I agree that the wires on the board, are not good enough to be used with the high current of car motors.

I am also thinking of Thanos (TronicGr)'s Dual H-Bridge over the longer term. I hope it works with arduino!

A car starter motor?!?!?! They draw massive current for a reason and are rated at 1kw for a reason!
What do you intend to move? A bus?
We have found that the daytons from ebay and big motors from motion dynamics, which are rated at 200 watts have been more than sufficient.
They are strong, reliable, and can run off the famous JRK, so no massive h-bridge needed.
From what I understand, you are looking at a design like yoko's.
As for tronics card, he has a 33 page thread and growing. If you can source everything easily then have a go.

[NeoTokyoNori]

A car starter motor?!?!?! They draw massive current for a reason and are rated at 1kw for a reason!
What do you intend to move? A bus?

That is a good guess motiondave
Did you know that In Japan train driving simulations are very popular?
Like these:


So my next project is a train sim, but a train is too big ! so I was thinking of using an old bus body shell