Hello,
In the past couple of days, I was able to get my wheelchair robot to run manually using an RC transmitter (5 channel Spektrum). For now, I just hooked up my receiver to my Sabertooth 2X25 motor driver in mode 2: RC mode, differential drive, exponential.
Here's a quick video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80yGobow1AEI'm beginning to look at the Arduino library & the net for different codes that I may try out (programming is my weakest point but I have a few friends who are much better at programming).
Before I start on that I would really like to use the 5th channel toggle switch (labeled 'gear' on the receiver) to switch between autonomous and manual control.
I'm familiar with how the throttle, aileron, elevator channels work using ppm, with 1000us on the 'low' end, 2000us on the 'high' end and 1500us as center.
And just guessing how the toggle switch channel works, maybe one position is one extreme (such as 1000us) and the other toggle position would be the opposite extreme (2000us)?
I went ahead and checked the voltages on the gear channel signal (no load) and in one position I got .149VDC and other position I got .258VDC.
I really like the results in RC mode (there's an RC microcontroller mode as well) and was wondering if I could get some suggestions on how to go about doing this.
One way I was thinking was an electronic/semi-conductor type of DPDT switch that would accept signal S1 & S2 from the Arduino and signals S1 & S2 from the receiver and with the signal from the 5th channel toggle to switch between the 2 sets of (S1 & S2)'s. The output would go to the S1 & S2 inputs on the motor driver.
I've also done some work (on a custom Atari 5200 controller & adapter) using Quad comparators and how they would 'activate' a signal when a low or high voltage threshold was achieved.
But if I recall correctly, the output was digital not analog.
Btw, currently, the robot will have some simple sensors such as ultrasonic & motion detectors. And for the time being it's function will be to follow people around & avoid obstacles. As I progress, hopefully will add more functions and possibly more/different sensors.