Ecology Rover

Afternoon All,

I am ecologist in the UK and as such spend a lot of time trying to establish what lives in holes in the ground and river banks. To assist me in my mission I have built a prototype ecology rover, I’ve attached a photo. The first test was pretty successful!

Eco Rover

It is essentially a cheap 4wd robot chassis with a big COB LED on the front and a micro FPV camera from a drone mounted under the top plate to keep the profile down. I run constant 12v, FPV feed and motor control wires down a tether made of 8 core alarm cable. On the surface, I have a box with a uno and H bridge inside and a joy stick poking out the top powered from a big 12v torch battery. The FPV feed is connected up to a small TFT screen for reversing cameras.

What I would really like to achieve is to have a joystick for each side to enable me to control each side independently so I can rotate the rover in tight spaces.

Are any of you helpful lot able to help me out? My code skills currently stop at copy and paste and I would be incredibly grateful for any help.

From what I have read in a few places I may need to rotate the joysticks 45 degrees to achieve this. Is this correct?

This is my current code and wiring diagram, taken from : https://bit.ly/2pVggoY

/*  Arduino DC Motor Control - PWM | H-Bridge | L298N
         Example 02 - Arduino Robot Car Control
    by Dejan Nedelkovski, www.HowToMechatronics.com
*/

#define enA 9
#define in1 4
#define in2 5
#define enB 10
#define in3 6
#define in4 7

int motorSpeedA = 0;
int motorSpeedB = 0;

void setup() {
  pinMode(enA, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(enB, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in4, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  int xAxis = analogRead(A0); // Read Joysticks X-axis
  int yAxis = analogRead(A1); // Read Joysticks Y-axis

  // Y-axis used for forward and backward control
  if (yAxis < 470) {
    // Set Motor A backward
    digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(in2, LOW);
    // Set Motor B backward
    digitalWrite(in3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(in4, LOW);
    // Convert the declining Y-axis readings for going backward from 470 to 0 into 0 to 255 value for the PWM signal for increasing the motor speed
    motorSpeedA = map(yAxis, 470, 0, 0, 255);
    motorSpeedB = map(yAxis, 470, 0, 0, 255);
  }
  else if (yAxis > 550) {
    // Set Motor A forward
    digitalWrite(in1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
    // Set Motor B forward
    digitalWrite(in3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(in4, HIGH);
    // Convert the increasing Y-axis readings for going forward from 550 to 1023 into 0 to 255 value for the PWM signal for increasing the motor speed
    motorSpeedA = map(yAxis, 550, 1023, 0, 255);
    motorSpeedB = map(yAxis, 550, 1023, 0, 255);
  }
  // If joystick stays in middle the motors are not moving
  else {
    motorSpeedA = 0;
    motorSpeedB = 0;
  }

  // X-axis used for left and right control
  if (xAxis < 470) {
    // Convert the declining X-axis readings from 470 to 0 into increasing 0 to 255 value
    int xMapped = map(xAxis, 470, 0, 0, 255);
    // Move to left - decrease left motor speed, increase right motor speed
    motorSpeedA = motorSpeedA - xMapped;
    motorSpeedB = motorSpeedB + xMapped;
    // Confine the range from 0 to 255
    if (motorSpeedA < 0) {
      motorSpeedA = 0;
    }
    if (motorSpeedB > 255) {
      motorSpeedB = 255;
    }
  }
  if (xAxis > 550) {
    // Convert the increasing X-axis readings from 550 to 1023 into 0 to 255 value
    int xMapped = map(xAxis, 550, 1023, 0, 255);
    // Move right - decrease right motor speed, increase left motor speed
    motorSpeedA = motorSpeedA + xMapped;
    motorSpeedB = motorSpeedB - xMapped;
    // Confine the range from 0 to 255
    if (motorSpeedA > 255) {
      motorSpeedA = 255;
    }
    if (motorSpeedB < 0) {
      motorSpeedB = 0;
    }
  }
  // Prevent buzzing at low speeds (Adjust according to your motors. My motors couldn't start moving if PWM value was below value of 70)
  if (motorSpeedA < 70) {
    motorSpeedA = 0;
  }
  if (motorSpeedB < 70) {
    motorSpeedB = 0;
  }
  analogWrite(enA, motorSpeedA); // Send PWM signal to motor A
  analogWrite(enB, motorSpeedB); // Send PWM signal to motor B
}

Before anyone can write code, the requirements need to be well defined. Yours are not.

What, EXACTLY, should the left side joystick do? What, EXACTLY, should the right side joystick do?