I have started a little backwards on this and have designed the wheels before starting on my actual sketch.
3d-printable_mecanum_wheel Well it is a set, not just one wheel.
I plan to control this using 2 analog joysticks for all of the movement.
Question is how do I control motor direction on the Adafruit motor shield using a analog joystick? I have seen examples for the motor shield on using it for PIR robots, but more of a motor forward motor backwards. I want speed control.
What kind of analog joystick? a game port one? something knicked from an arcade machine? An analog joystick is just two 100k ohm potentiometers, one for X axis and the other for the Y axis. Well, the value might not be 100k depending on where the stick is intended to be used.
I think you can read the position of the joystick via 2 of the analog ports. Just need to calibrate the values for center and the extremes.
Just analog joysticks pulled from a old PS1 controller. 2.5K or so.
This is what I have working so far.
#include <AFMotor.h> // imported AFMotor library
AF_DCMotor motor(3);
int SPEED = 0;
int val = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
motor.run(RELEASE);
delay(50);
}
void moveForward() {
motor.run(FORWARD);
motor.setSpeed(SPEED);
Serial.print(" ");
Serial.print( SPEED);
}
void moveBackward() {
motor.run(BACKWARD);
motor.setSpeed(SPEED);
Serial.print(" ");
Serial.print( SPEED);
}
void loop() {
int val = analogRead(1);
if (val > 540) {
// move faster the higher the value from the potentiometer
SPEED = 2048 - 1024 * val / 512 + 1;
moveForward();
} else if (val < 480) {
// move faster the lower the value from the potentiometer
SPEED = 1024 * val / 512 + 1;
moveBackward();
} else {
motor.run(RELEASE);
}
My values are off. Mid point between forward and middle and backward and middle are the high speeds. modifying it for 2 joysticks makes it very buggy, but usable.
I got more help from the Adafruit forms.
Video http://www.flickr.com/photos/20102150@N06/4538224965/?processed=1&cb=1271792057427
Basic tank steering.
#include <AFMotor.h> // imported AFMotor library
AF_DCMotor motor(3);
AF_DCMotor motor1(4);
void setup() {
}
void loop() {
int speed = analogRead(1);
speed = map(speed, 0, 1023, -255, 255);
if (speed < 0)
{
motor.run(BACKWARD);
motor.setSpeed(abs(speed));
}
if (speed > 0)
{
motor.run(FORWARD);
motor.setSpeed(speed);
}
int speed2 = analogRead(0);
speed2 = map(speed2, 0, 1023, -255, 255);
if (speed2 < 0)
{
motor1.run(BACKWARD);
motor1.setSpeed(abs(speed2));
}
if (speed2 > 0)
{
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor1.setSpeed(speed2);
}
}
Here is a video of the side-to-side testing.
I was the camera man, another guy with no experience was controlling it.
And the code for that part.
#include <AFMotor.h> // imported AFMotor library
AF_DCMotor motor1(1);
AF_DCMotor motor2(2);
AF_DCMotor motor3(3);
AF_DCMotor motor4(4);
void setup() {
}
void loop() {
int speed = analogRead(2);
speed = map(speed, 0, 1023, -255, 255);
if (speed < 0)
{
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor2.setSpeed(abs(speed));
motor3.run(BACKWARD);
motor3.setSpeed(abs(speed));
}
if (speed > 0)
{
motor2.run(BACKWARD);
motor2.setSpeed(speed);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
motor3.setSpeed(speed);
}
int speed2 = analogRead(3);
speed2 = map(speed2, 0, 1023, -255, 255);
if (speed2 < 0)
{
motor1.run(BACKWARD);
motor1.setSpeed(abs(speed2));
motor4.run(FORWARD);
motor4.setSpeed(abs(speed2));
}
if (speed2 > 0)
{
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor1.setSpeed(speed2);
motor4.run(BACKWARD);
motor4.setSpeed(speed2);
}
}