You can follow this project on my blog here: http://maxkulik.koding.com/

[all]

I currently have all the Arduino drivers installed, even still my laptop will only see it as this:

I just picked up the Arduino Micro but I am having a hard time getting the drivers working on my laptop. I am running Windows 8 (The largest pain to get any Arduino drivers installed.) And it's 64 bit.

This is the Arduino that I have: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMicro

Thanks!

My channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mteverst3

Alright. By they way, I just wanted to say thanks for all of your help!!! I have actually learned allot during this project and I hope that I continue to keep learning more and more! I am going to continue to expand on the car and hope that I can get turning working as well.

Is it because the current of the 9v battery is to low? I am just wondering because I have the motors on the car powered by their own battery and it seems to have a much higher current.

After installing the pull-down resistors, everything seems to check out perfect on the serial monitor. It repeats "stop" when nothing is pressed, "forward" when the forward button is pressed, and "backward" when the backwards button is pressed. Here are some updated picture of the controller:







The last thing that I seem to be having a problem with is powering everything on the board. When I have it plugged into my laptop and a 9v batter at the same time I have no problem with power. It seems that the 9v battery alone is nowhere near as powerful as it needs to be for all the LEDs and receiver and such. Do you or anyone have any suggestions as to how I could power the Arduino better?

Could I use some 10K Ohm resistors?

[BUT]

Did you install pull down resistors on the buttons? Do a search for "pull down resistor", and to use them with buttons.

Added: Wait, did you put one the receive code a way to turn off the second relay? Another thing, does the serial monitor put out "Backwards"?

No I don't think I did and Yes it does just print out "Backwards" on the serial monitor, BUT every now-and-then I will see "stop".

[**EDIT**]

**EDIT** No and yes it does say "Backwards"

Is this what I am looking for:



I can do this easy, I just want to make sure I am looking at the right thing. I am currently reading about them too, just to understand them a bit more.

Alright playing around with the controller code for a while and this is what I have:

Code:

#include <VirtualWire.h>

int RF_TX_PIN = 2;
int Button1 = 13;      //Forward (Button 1)
int Button2 = 12;      //Backwards (Button 2)
 
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Setup Complete");
  vw_set_tx_pin(RF_TX_PIN); // Setup transmit pin
  vw_setup(2000); // Transmission speed in bits per second.
  pinMode(Button1, INPUT);
  pinMode(Button2, INPUT);
}
 
void loop()
{
  if (digitalRead(Button1)){
  Serial.println("Forwards");
  const char *msg = "1";
  vw_send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg));  // Send 'Forwards' every 50ms.
  }
  else if (digitalRead(Button2)){
  Serial.println("Backwards");
  const char *msg = "2";
  vw_send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg)); // Send 'Backwards' every 50ms.
  }
  else {
  Serial.println("Stop");
  const char *msg = "0";
  vw_send((uint8_t *)msg, strlen(msg));  // Send 'Stop' every 50ms.
  }
}

Everything works, other then the fact that it is always transmitting "2" or backwards. As of right now I am stuck because I even did some research on how if-then-else statements and how they work and I don't see why this doesn't work.

Can "True" or False" act as "HIGH" or "LOW"? Or is there a different way I can re-write that statement in order for it to function as it should?

So are you saying the code is set up to return a "True" or "False" statement but in face it is not?

I don't exactly know what a Pull down resistor is. I know what a resistor is though.

My wiring is correct. I don't even have to press anything and it will just spam "Backwards".