HI! I am kinda new to programming and digital electronics, though I haver been having fun playing with different sketches.
I am controlling a wheeled vehicle with a RC radio signal fed directly to a Sabertooth 2X60. The problem is that the unit is too responsive, and the acceleration needs to be significantly regulated. I am using very torque motors, and the rapid starts are not doing my drive components much good at all. I would like to feed the receiver signals to an arduino, and have that feed the motor controllers the required 's-curve' acceleration data. I would like to be able to limit the rate of acceleration, as well as the steering motor, perhaps tying that to the speed of the craft.
Another question I have is this: Can I run a sketch to control the motors as well as one to say do the ultrasonic obstacle detector, or monitor the batteries? Can I run different sketches simultaneously, or do they have to operate consecutively?
Thank you very much!
It is relatively easy to measure the PWM signals from a RC receiver using the pulseIn() function. Then modify the signals and output via servo.write() functions. You can certainly run both of the functions within one sketch. You can run only one sketch at a time.
Thank you. If I may... if I just do that, won't the output be the same as the input? How do I modify the signal so it has a acceleration limitation. I am afraid I am a complete newbie at programming, and so far have only copied and pasted sketches.
PulseIn() returns the microsecond width of the pulse input from the receiver (nominally 1000 to 2000 microseconds). Say, 1000 uS for full reverse and 2000 uS for full ahead. Then, for instance, calculate the difference between the present speed and the desired speed, then using Servo.writeMicroseconds() increase or decrease the pulse width output to the speed control over several steps to the desired speed. Kind of like the servo sweep example. Read in from receiver, modify in code, write to speed control.