Thanos AMC1.6 USB 2DOF Motion Controller

[denizelmas]

great Tronic,
I need your help....
I want to use your AMc 1.6 USB and H-bridge in my project driven with dc worm gear driving sarrus link with pretensioned with a spring instead of elastic rope. I am searching right now for the parts like ATmega644 but I went to http://www.atmel.com/devices/atmega644.aspx many options, can you please help me to identify the right one or equivalent- in your part list it s not mentioned if I am not wrong...
a small drawing

thx

[watkykjy]

Hi Guys,

It's been nearly 4 years since I built my simulator and had to abandon the project due to personal difficulties, but the time has finally come to resurrect this thing and get her going!

Anyway, I built Thano's new USB controller, but regardless of what I do, I simply cannot seem to get it to work through x-sim. My X and Y values refuses to do anything. when I use the POTS connected to the AMC, I can change the feedback values, but the input values (the values shown first for both X and Y) simply refuse to change, even if I am in a game with the output set properly.

I am currently running 1.1h firmware with the 18mhz crystal setup. I have literally rebuilt the entire board to ensure that nothing is loose, etc, but the same problem still remains. The moment I start x-sim, I will see the RX light on my USB to Serial convertor flash for a minute or so (without any values changing), and then it will just stop. I can then stop and start the sending of data again, which will make the RX light flash again, but still the X and Y values will remain at 128, and not move.

Any help, suggestions, things I can check, etc?

If you like, just let me know and I will make some video and post it as well

Thanks a lot!

[vicpopo]

Hi ,

Did you got the last fdti driver?
It happened sometimes , I unpluged and pluged the usb cable and it worked.
Thanos will get trough this post and give you the solution.
Did you have all connected , potentiometer, motors .
At the beginnig of the post there is a link for the terminal application.Quit Xsim and launch this app.If the communication is good you will see the values chnaging if you move your pot.
Regards

[watkykjy]

Tanks Vicpopo,

I do have the latest driver installed yes, and the baud rate, etc is set as shown earlier in the thread. I haven't yet tried to terminal to the system and then see what happens though, and I also only have the Pololu 30A h-bridge connected, but without any motors attached (it doesn't make a difference though even if the motors are attached...).

But let me try terminal into the system and then see what happens and I will report back from there..

Thanks mate!

[watkykjy]

Ok, I just used the terminal program, set the correct port, baud rate, etc, and connected to the controller. I can see the RX light go on, and data is being sent ti it constantly, and when I press any keys and press enter, I can see the TX light go on. The sad part is that the X and Y values are still remaining at 128... When I turn any of the ports, the corresponding values change, so at least I know that feedback is working properly, but the "goal" that the sim is supposed to reach (the X or Y value it should move towards) still refuses to change, and again it stays steady at 128.

Any other ideas I can try?

[vicpopo]

Hi,

Ok .When you move your potentiometers when terminal 's running did the values change ?
For X and Y it's normal that they didn't change because you can't give setpoint positions.
For the potentiometers the values change.

Best Regards

[watkykjy]

Yes, the values for the pots do change indeed, even when the terminal is running.

But my biggest problem is that the setpoint positions as you call them don't change when I am running a game and sending game data to the AMC...

The result is that the H-bridge will start at let's say X= 157 and Y= 168 for instance, which will mean that both motors will spin in one direction, but during gameplay, even though the motors *should* change direction as the car is driving, etc, they simply don't, because they don't get a signal from the AMC to change direction. When I do take the pots and turn them manually to let's say x= 50 and y=80 for instance, they do change direction, but that happens only manually, not through the AMC, so the AMC it seems is not getting or not responding to the game data at all...

Can I many ask you for a small favour if it is at all possible. Can you perhaps make a small 20 second video showing your 1.1h AMC running while you are in a game, so I can compare what your screen looks like to mine? Just ensure that your dipswitch 1 is "on", so that the X and Y values are showing if you can?

The bottom line is that it appears that everything is working fine, except that I am not getting any data from x-sim going to my AMC while playing a game. I have also tried using xSimCTRLv2.2 running just a sine wave to both channels, but even that refuses to move my motors in different directions, until I manually turn the pots, but the setpoint values never ever changes....

I am pulling my hair out about this! lol!

[prilad]

Ok, I just used the terminal program, set the correct port, baud rate, etc, and connected to the controller.

Do you get data from the controller to a terminal program on PC? At least something that confirms that there is communication between the PC and the controller?
If you set controller to terminal mode (with DIP-switch), after reset it should send to the COM-port a text string that should be displayed in the terminal program.
If not, check the RxD and TxD lines and Quartz frequency.

Regards,
Ale.

[tronicgr]

Does your USO settings look like this?
'

x-sim USO settings for version 1.1h.gif (152.23 KiB) Viewed 5169 times

Also make sure the FTDI timing settings are also set to 1ms..

Thanos

[tronicgr]

Or maybe for some reason the pin that is used as emergency stop is not pulling high somehow. A few versions ago I added a cut-off function for users to be able to turn off PWM and Direction outputs, thus setting the motor into brake. To use it just connect the "A1" pin from the encoder header to the GND through a switch.

You can override the internal pull-ups by connecting that "A1" pin to +5v using a 10k resistor like this:

"A1 pin" ------> 10k res ------> +5v

Also here is a video that show it connected to x-sim, changing manually values with the sliders.



Thanos