Make: Noise — Discuss this article

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• Servo avoidance
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  This was exactly what I was looking for. I was wondering, do you maybe have a sketch written up that uses the servo for object avoidance? A lot of the robots out there use a servo to 'look around' with the ping sensor to determine the best route to go. Would it be possible for you to make something like that? I don't know enough about the processing language (yet!) to be able to make something like that.

  Posted by Jair2k4 on October 27, 2009 at 07:55:16 Pacific Time

• It's Not Working!!!!!!!!!!
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  Please help me. I have built all the boards and checked connections and wiring but no matter what I do, the motors will not turn. I know the motors work because when connected directly to the Arduino micro controller, they turn, but when connected to the motor driver board, it doesn't work. Please help me!!!!

  Posted by kayrus on October 10, 2009 at 08:28:03 Pacific Time

• It's Not Working!!!!!!!!!!
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  OK, no problem, we'll get you going. First things first, don't plug the motors directly into the Arduino any more. The Arduino can only supply so much current, and it's far less than what's required by the motors. My bad for not mentioning this in the article -- it is actually possible to burn out your I/O pins by connecting motors to them, at least with other microcontrollers I have used.
  
  A) Make sure you are running test program 01_Test_Motor_Rotation or 02_Test_Motor_Speed.
  
  B) Check ground connections on motor driver board
  
  The motor driver board has three pins that are connected to ground. But who's ground? Good question. In addition to being connected to the negative lead on the 9V motor battery, the motor driver ground and the Arduino ground _also_ need to be connected together. This isn't clear from the schematic. So, make sure that at least one of the ground connections on the motor driver board is connected to the ground connection on the Arduino Proto Shield. This place is labeled "GND" on the Proto Shield, and you have doubtless ran that up to your breadboard somewhere.
  
  C) Send a photo
  Email a digital photo to: kris@makezine.com, and I will try to see if I can spot any problems in your wiring.
  
  D) Check pins 4,5,6,7
  
  Now we'll check whether pins 4,5,6,7 are functioning OK by replacing the motor driver with an LED and seeing whether the LED lights up. You will need a resistor and an LED for this.
  
  Remove the wire connecting Ardiuno pin D4 to the motor controller pin BIn2.
  Put a resistor into Arduino pin D4. It can be anywhere from 330 up to about 1000 ohm. (If you don't happen to have any resistors in this range... email me what you have and maybe we can come up with some equivalent.)
  Find an unused spot on your breadboard (not so easy)
  Connect the resistor to the positive side of an LED by plugging both into breadboard appropriately. (Positive is long lead, or no flat spot on plastic housing)
  Connected negative side of LED to ground (GND).
  Run program 01_Test_Motor_Rotation.
  The LED should turn on briefly, then turn off. (about 1/4 of a second).
  
  Repeat with pins D5, D6, and D7.
  
  E) Check power connection to motor driver chip
  Make sure you have wired 5V to the VCC pin on the motor driver chip. If you have a multimeter, put it on volts and make sure it reads 5V when you proble the VCC pin and the GND pin on the motor driver. Check it with all three of the GND pins and each should meter 5V.
  
  F) That's all I can think of right now, feel free to email me directly.

  Posted by kmagri on October 13, 2009 at 14:54:58 Pacific Time

• ProtoShield Kit
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  I ordered and received the ProtoShield Kit #MKAD6 from maker shed but it seems to be different than the posted assembly instructions reference. My board is slightly different, and it did not come with 2 330 ohm res. or 1 10Kohm res. It did come with 2 1kohm resistors. Is this going to be a problem? I found assembly instructions for this kit at http://www.ladyada.net/make/pshield/. Do I still need to cut something off?

  Posted by looking up on August 25, 2009 at 06:09:04 Pacific Time

• ProtoShield Kit
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  Yes, the board is slightly different. The difference in resistors will not be a problem. Go ahead and assemble using the resistors it came with. You do not have to cut anything off. Also, on Step 7b, your board is not labeled RAW, I think it is labelled Vin instead.

  Posted by kmagri on August 26, 2009 at 14:31:37 Pacific Time

• Lego Tires
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  Anyone have a lead on where to purchase the lego tires?

  Posted by Keith Nasman on August 16, 2009 at 21:02:54 Pacific Time

• Lego Tires
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  When checking out the hubs from Solarbotics, I found that they also had wheels which attached to the gear motors the same as the hubs. These wheels may be slightly bigger than the Lego ones, but they reduce the need to order a hub, create a wheel and find LEGO tires.

  Posted by svsparks on September 01, 2009 at 20:13:50 Pacific Time

• Lego Tires
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  Try BrickLink www.bricklink.com, or Peeron, www.peeron.com
  
  The LEGO part number for the tire is 6594.
  
  On the Brick Link site, click Buy LEGO, then Parts, then enter 6594, scroll down the list, and hopefully there will be some for sale.
  
  Also try Peeron.com. Entering 6594 will bring up a description of the tire, picture, what LEGO sets contained it, etc, and on the right side it has a grid showing which BrickShops stock the tire. If you click on a shop, it takes you to BrickLink, I believe.
  
  

  Posted by kmagri on August 26, 2009 at 14:15:55 Pacific Time