Maze Runner Robot

[hixoop]

hello, I'm currently building a maze runner robot. it is supposed to work with 4 dc motors, I'm using an Arduino Uno and a motor shield attached to it. I plugged the 4 motors into the motor shield and burned the following code to the Arduino:

#include <AFMotor.h>


AF_DCMotor motor1(1);
AF_DCMotor motor2(2);
AF_DCMotor motor3(3);
AF_DCMotor motor4(4);


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  motor1.setSpeed(100);
  motor1.run(RELEASE);
  motor2.setSpeed(100);
  motor2.run(RELEASE);
  motor3.setSpeed(100);
  motor3.run(RELEASE);
  motor4.setSpeed(100);
  motor4.run(RELEASE);


}

void loop() {

  motor1.run(BACKWARD);
  motor2.run(BACKWARD);
  motor3.run(BACKWARD);
  motor4.run(BACKWARD);
  
  delay(3000);

  motor1.run(FORWARD);
  motor3.run(FORWARD);
  motor2.run(FORWARD);
  motor4.run(FORWARD);

}

and only two dc motors (2,3) are working. does anyone know the reason?

[markd833]

Unlikely to be related to your problem, but should there be a couple of motor3.run() commands in the loop rather than duplicate motor2.run() commands?

EDIT: A few other thoughts:

1. Do you need to stop the motor before changing its direction?
2. What happens if you have just 1 motor wired up to the controller and move it between the 4 channels?
3. You need another delay after the motorx.run(FORWARD) commands in the loop.

[hixoop]

the duplication was an innocent mistake because I did too many edits on the code while I was trying to get the motors to run
however now I'm just trying to get all 4 dc motors to run before working on the maze algorithm

I did wire one motor and changed between the channels only channel 2 and 3 are working.

when I plugged the motor which was in channel 4 into channel 3 it moved poorly and slow and stopped for a long time then it started to run again

I don't know if there is a faulty in the motor shield or the dc motors or the code or I should just provide 2 more batteries and connect them to the shield

[wildbill]

Can you run every motor if you do them one at a time?

Also, you're using pin one for a motor and for serial.

[markd833]

@hixoop I would suggest that you try and identify a working channel and a working motor. Then use that working motor to determine which other channels are working correctly.

[hixoop]

yes I can but when I plug them into channel 2 or 3 only

I don't understand how am I using pin one for a motor and for serial.... and how can I fix this?

[hixoop]

i did that and channel 2 and 3 only are working. do you think it's a faulty in motor shield?

[wildbill]

Pins zero and one are used for serial. Pick another one for your motor.

[hixoop]

how may I do that?

[markd833]

I'm not sure why @wildbill thinks you are using pin 1 of the Arduino (which is used for serial comms). I found a schematic for what might be the correct/similar motor driver board and it doesn't use the serial pins at all.

Assuming that channel 2 & 3 refer to M2 and M3 on the board, they are on separate driver chips.

If you suspect that there may be a fault with the driver chips, then by the looks of your photo, the chips are in DIL sockets. You could try removing the 2 driver chips and swapping them over to see if channels 2 and 3 still work.

If you just have the code for 1 motor on channel 1, does that work? (Trying to establish if it's a channel fault or an issue to do with using multiple motors).

Are you using the correct library to drive the board? The Adafruit website shows a v1 motor driver shield that they no longer make which looks very similar to yours.

[hixoop]

I did change the code to work only with channel 1 and plugged the motor's wire into the channel and nothing happened

And when I burned the same code but for channel 2 and plugged the motor it worked just fine

[markd833]

Ok, if you are sure that the library you are using matches the board that you have, then there could be an issue with the L293D driver chips.

But first, I would triple check the library/board compatibility as it could easily go wrong if the shift register outputs on the driver board don't match the pin definition in the library.

[hixoop]

turned out that there was a faulty in the l293D I changed it and the code worked just fine thank your mark