Arduino Project

30 views
Skip to first unread message

chris magruder

unread,
May 11, 2011, 3:29:40 PM5/11/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
Hey everyone, 

I have been reading into the arduino and xbee's more. I have it somewhat figured out but its really hard to get something to work if you don't really have an idea of what you're working with. I need to actually get some Xbee's to see what they can do and such. I never got a reply back from Digi International so I called them today, I sent an email 2 weeks ago I hope they don't get too annoyed with me. I'm pretty sure they will be pretty easy to work with, atleast I hope so but I can't really tell you guys what will work and what wont until I get some Xbee's. The guy who made the speed controller I was looking at wrote a book about arduino and robotics and it has a section in it about using xbee's so I could wait till i get that in the mail to see exactly what we need. 

Some other things if any of you would like to read into. 
The Arduino Mega, has a significantly larger amount of ports to work with but I think it uses the same controller so not sure what it's totally capable of. 

There are a bunch of adapters out there that have to do with xbee's and arduino's. Here is the best one that I found. 
It can be bought on ebay for cheaper but takes around a month to get (from china)

I think im going to buy some of these for testing purposes with the xbee. 



On another note, I scrapped an old ps2 controller and stole the joysticks from it. I'm going to solder on longer wires and get some kind of way to hold them and see how well they work. Seem decent, they were free after all. 


thats all for now. 

Chris

Michal Talarczyk

unread,
May 11, 2011, 7:33:36 PM5/11/11
to IEEE Robotics UIC
Sounds good if we don't get the sponsorship from Digi, we can always
ask Amy, from RobotWorx to sponsor them for us. Also we already have
$500 from Jerry Sanders Design Competition for this year. Do you
already know what we will be needing, in terms of the XBees?

Mike

chris magruder

unread,
May 11, 2011, 7:37:23 PM5/11/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com

Just 2 xbee pro's, the 2.4Ghz version, another ardurino, don't know of I want it to be a Mega or not, and two interface boards between the xbees and ardurinos

Michal Talarczyk

unread,
May 12, 2011, 8:52:10 PM5/12/11
to IEEE Robotics UIC
Cool, did you need the one's with the antenna sticking out? or the
one's with the antenna chip for the XBEEs

Give it two more weeks, if we don't find a sponsor to send us the
XBEE's or the arduino, I'll just order us the parts we need.

Mike

chris magruder

unread,
May 13, 2011, 9:58:16 PM5/13/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
I have a question that I need answered before I can do anything else on the arduino.

Are we going to use the drivetrain controls on the arduino or are we going to manipulate the current controller.
       - if we are going to use the arduino we need to get a arduino mega since the uno only has 6 analog inputs and we would need 7.

Also the Xbee we would want would be the "XBP 24-AW1-001"

Chris

Michal Talarczyk

unread,
May 13, 2011, 11:08:09 PM5/13/11
to IEEE Robotics UIC
That depends on how comfortable you feel in using pots for the drive
train....
also would this require one or two arduino megas?

mike

chris magruder

unread,
May 18, 2011, 2:51:05 AM5/18/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
Question:
We are going to  use automotive relays to control the motors. They use 12v to turn them on and off, the arduino uses 5v and can only output up to 40mA. Are we going to use 2 relays for each direction of the motor, meaning 4 relays per motor and 20 all together. If so I need to start looking into getting relays that will work on 5v 40mA and switch 12V. 

Chris

wfa...@yahoo.com

unread,
May 18, 2011, 5:59:21 AM5/18/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
If you want to switch an automotive relay with 5V I suggest you use transistors between the uc and the relays. Any 5V relay should be able to handle 12V across its terminals but they may not be able to handle the high currents that we're expecting.

V/R
Will

From: chris magruder <magru...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 01:51:05 -0500
Subject: Re: Arduino Project

Michal Talarczyk

unread,
Jun 15, 2011, 8:55:53 PM6/15/11
to IEEE Robotics UIC
Jakub brought in some 40 amp car relays to the office there are also
automotive relays that go up to 80amps. As Will said we would need a
transistor to turn the relay ON since the relays have low impedance.
Therefore the current needed to turn the relays ON would fry the IC/
micro-controller. So a transistor would allow us to amplify the
current sent to the relay.

mike

On May 18, 4:59 am, wfae...@yahoo.com wrote:
> If you want to switch an automotive relay with 5V I suggest you use transistors between the uc and the relays. Any 5V relay should be able to handle 12V across its terminals but they may not be able to handle the high currents that we're expecting.
>
> V/R
> Will
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chris magruder <magrude...@gmail.com>
>
> Sender: ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 01:51:05
> To: <ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com>
> Reply-To: ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: Arduino Project
>
> Question:
> We are going to  use automotive relays to control the motors. They use 12v
> to turn them on and off, the arduino uses 5v and can only output up to 40mA.
> Are we going to use 2 relays for each direction of the motor, meaning 4
> relays per motor and 20 all together. If so I need to start looking into
> getting relays that will work on 5v 40mA and switch 12V.
>
> Chris
>

Walkosz, Jakub J.

unread,
Jun 17, 2011, 5:07:06 AM6/17/11
to ieee-rob...@googlegroups.com
Hey guys, I'm coming back next week, but am going to the SDAC meeting
immediately afterwards. I'll be utterly available starting July 1st. When
are we having a meeting?

Jakub

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages