Just a quick post about my latest project. For many years I've wanted to create an autonomous wheeled robot but only recently have I had the time and cheap parts to try and pull it off. That and I needed a project for my Raspberry Pi.
I've bought so far:
I've bought so far:
- Raspberry Pi
- 4WD Robot
- Two driver modules to power the DC motors on the robots platform
- USB Wifi dongle for remote control
- Optical sensors to detect wheel speed from the wheel encoders that came with the platform
What I've assembled so far is:
- Mounted motors onto platform
- Mounter driver modules onto platform
- Wired up motors to the modules
- Wired up one pair of motors to the Pi
- Wired up the batteries for the motors
- Mounted the optical sensor onto one encoder disk
- Tested PWM output to the motors. Slowest value is 40/255. Any lower any the motor won't turn with no load. Motors need a value of around 85/255 to start turning at all but can then be dropped down. Of course with load it takes about 128/255 (50% Duty) to push.
Lots more to do. Next up, sensing speed with the optical sensor.
