Last year I built a "Dark Ride" for Halloween. A four passenger cart was pulled along a fabricated track by two Quantum 6000z mobility scooter motors. I used an Arduino Uno connected to the serial ports of a Sabertooth 2x32 motor driver. I also connected a nRF24lo1 wireless transceiver to a controller for dispatch and emergency stops. The sketch for the ride worked fine, but the weight of the ride with passengers requires a larger motor driver. So this year I have upgraded to a Sabertooth 2x60 driver....and now I'm stuck.
The 2x60 uses the simplified 8-bit serial library vs the USB packet library for the 2x32. I changed the coding to such. I found that I can run a cart sketch to move the cart as previously done. However, with the 2x60 motor driver and the simplified coding, my wireless connection has not been able to receive commands form the controller to the cart in order to dispatch the ride. There is some type of problem with receiving wireless signals with my new motor driver connection. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?
There may be something wrong with your code or your wiring.
The best that I can say with the available information is to run the CheckConnection.ino (look in reply #30 in Robin2's simple rf24 tutorial) to verify the physical wiring between the radio module and its processor (Arduino).
Thanks for the reply. I will upload my script below. I stripped it down to essentially two programs. The first was the wireless network exclusively and the second was the motor driver exclusively. The wireless network of the first sketch worked perfectly; sending signals back and forth from the controller and the cart. From that I can conclude that it is not a hardware issue with the nRF24101 module. The second sketch simply ran the "ride" program automatically without the wireless control language. This also worked, which leads me to believe the driver is operational as well. The problem resumes when I combine the two components into one sketch. I also reached out to dimension engineering and they recommended adding a 10K pull-down resistor from the S1 to ground. I added that tonight and the problem remains. I am no coding genius (changed to a business major from CIS halfway through college), so I am open to coding critique.
I will not download code. It is a pain. Read the forum guidelines to see how to properly post code and some good information on making a good post.
Use the IDE autoformat tool (ctrl-t or Tools, Auto format) before posting code in code tags.
Please post the code that does not work as well.
Please post a schematic. Written descriptions are always more ambiguous than a drawing. Hand drawn, photographed and posted is fine if you don't do CAD. Include all pin names/numbers, components, their part numbers and/or values and power supplies.
Also include data sheets or other technical documentation of the motor driver.