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[on:]

Hi, I have a sabertooth 2x25 and I would like to control the two motors via a potentiometer that is wired on an arduino duemilanove.

I tried to control the motors just using a potentiometer on the Motor Controller but i get some strange results.

The two motors run on the same speed and direction only when the 10k potentiometer is  near its middle value.
On every other position the two motors run on different speeds and when the potentiometer reach its final values the one motor runs on its max speed and the other one runs backwards on a slower speed.

Is this supposed to happen?I am a bit confused.

As far as the arduino part is concerned: I try to do the same thing (but with the potentiometer wired to the arduino this time) by sending in serial the values of the pot to the motor controller.

I am pretty new to arduino and Motor controllers and I have a bit of difficulty in making them communicate.
have found a library called newsoftserial but I haven't managed to write the appropriate code yet.

Anyone could help?
Thank you!

[Reply #1 on:]

Is this supposed to happen?I am a bit confused.

Have you read the manufacture's information or data sheet? Perhaps you can post a link to the sabertooth you have.

[Reply #2 on:]

Is this supposed to happen?I am a bit confused.

Have you read the manufacture's information or data sheet? Perhaps you can post a link to the sabertooth you have.

Hi zoomkat and thak you for the response, I wrote it, it is the sabertooth 2X25 http://www.dimensionengineering.com/datasheets/Sabertooth2x25.pdf

It doesnt say something about the motors behavior when controlled directly by potentiometer.

My main problem is that I cant manage to make it communicate via serial with the arduino.

[Reply #3 on:]

Well, at a minimum you need to tell what mode you are trying to use on the sabertooth, and post the code you are trying to use. You may need to step back and do some simple test setups to understand what you are doing. You may want to set the sabertooth for an RC mode and use code on the arduino similar to the knob code below.

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Knob