I have started on a project to use a arduino nano to control a original 1979 Bigtrak. I have got set up a circuit using a H-bridge board to drive the motors and uploaded code to switch on the motor to run forward as a test. I am using a 4.5v battery supply to test the code and the H-bridge, once the arduino is running the off load voltage is 3.5 volts which is around what I expected, but once the motor is connected the output voltage from the bridge drops to 0.25 volts.
I'm considering the possibility that a 4.5 v supply is probably not a sufficient supply and need to possibly double it to 9 v to run the motors. Has anybody got any other suggestions apart from this?
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You might have hit on something there with the speaker on the Big Trak.
When I first tried the H bridge I had the battery to power the motors connected to the 5v input, the LED on the bridge lit up to show it had power, when I connected it on the 12v input the LED didn't light up.
I tried again connecting to the 12v input later and the LED lit up, then powered up the arduino and the motors started running. I have since set up to use PWM and can change the speed which works satisfactory.
So next step is to get the big trak to turn right or left now. Just a case of experimenting with the code to get the right set up with motor speeds etc.