Hello guys! This is my first time here at Arduino Forums, I hope to have a great time, learn and help others in any way I can.
Right now I'm having a bit of an issue, I have this motor that drives an encoder, this sensor sends pulses to my Arduino to determine the rpms a which the motor is being driven; the thing is that at low speed it goes well, but as soon as I bust up the voltage of the motor, making it go faster, my Arduino "dies", it shuts down and I need to reboot the PC to make it all work again.
I am thinking that maybe I am exceeding the frequency rate allowed by the Arduino, but I'm not sure, I am willing to experiment with some other stuff like a frequency-to-voltage converter and try to read the voltage with Arduino, but I wanted to ask first if you have had a similar problem.
Reboot pc ?
Are you sure your Arduino stops working ?
Maybe you should add some way to tell it stops working, like a slow blinking LED (needs very small code).
That way you will not depend on serial communication (guessing that is what does stop and why you need to reboot your pc).
Serial communication does cost you valuable time.
The problem with the PC could also be generated by a too large power consumption of your Arduino setup or interference on the USB bus by either your motor or the encoder (depends on what type it is).
What speed does that motor run ?
And if those pulses (what do they look like by the way, what shape do they have ?) are coming in too fast, consider a divider ic.
Just a few components needed for that typically.
I think you could even get your Arduino to select a range from such divider, by selecting an other output if you get too close to the safe/stable operating range for your Arduino (need more inputs for that).
More questions:
Are the generated pulses within 0 to 5 volts ?
Do you have links to the products you are using ?