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Australia
Asked — Edited

Sabertooth Red Error Light

I seem to be having trouble with one of my Sabertooth/kangaroo motor controllers. The red error light is on and the the motor will not work. Up until now it has been working fine. I suspect what may have happened, (not sure if this is a thing or not), I had the motor/encoder unplugged from the sabertooth and had run the initiation script while testing other things on the robot. I have tried re-auto tuning but this does not help. How do I reset the red error light? Everything seems to be connected. I cant see an obvious reason for it not to work.

Steve


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#70  
Yah! I'm really happy for you and releaved. I've been thinking of you often these past weeks knowing what you'er going through. As you know I've also spent weeks working through Auto Tune issues with the Roo. However if it makes you feel better once the tune was a success and set like I like, it's ben a solid and almost bullet proof system. Now that you've worked through all this I think you and the robot could work at NASA. :D

Your solution is fascinating and curious. So just to be clear; you had to use unshielded cable for the power and shielded for the signal. When you had the power cables running in shielded cable were they running side by side and close to the signal cable? When you say you separated them to get them to work what were you separating them from? I wish I knew what the actual issue was with the EMF and where it was occurring. If you had to separate the + & - of the power cable to get them to work that should not have mattered. If you had to separate and move the unsheilded +& - power cables away from the signal cables then you were still getting emf interference. Either way it was still bleeding over somewhere. Maybe at a connection point? I hate to keep beating a dead horse and put this out into the universe but all that moving cables could have reconnected a bad wire or connection somewhere. I hope I'm just full of crap on that last statement. It's just nice to know what the actual cause of these things are for the next time something like this happens to us.

When you recover from this traumatic event (LOL) would you be willing to take a few pictures of your wiring setup from Roo to motors to power supply? That is if you don't have him all buttoned up yet.

So I'll keep a positive attitude and be sure this issue is behind you. Thanks for including me in your process. It was great to watch you work through this to success. :)
Australia
#71  
Thank you Dave for all your support and help :)
I will add some pictures tonight with explanations. It's such a relief to be able to move forward. I felt I couldn't move forward at all by working on another part of the robot knowing this issue was still there.
I must head off to work now ....at NASA ;)

Steve
#72  
I know the feeling my friend. I'm glad your free to move on.

Three, Two, One..... Blast Off!:P
Australia
#73  
Sorry Dave, I had a big day at NASA today and my wife has plans for me tonight so I won't have time to add pictures of my setup tonight. I should be able to in a few days.

Steve
#74  
No Hurry at all Mr. Armstrong... err.... Neal, I'm mean Steve. ;) Take your time. The wife's plans come first and in front anything robot related. That is if we want to stay happy following our robot dreams. LOL. It's good to know nothing is different even if you live on the other side and at the bottom of this fine earth. Damm, I think I hear my wife calling. Later.............
Australia
#75  
Hi Dave,

Here's a few photos of my setup with regards to the radar motor and ear motors
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#76  
Thanks for the pics with the labels Steve. Man, that's one clean build! Very impressive and I'm kinda embarrassed with my messy wire filled CSS now. I'm so glad things are working now for you.

I have a couple off topic questions if your willing to answer;

Have you had the torso in place with the CSS and the EZB sealed inside? If so have you experienced any connection problems? I see your EZB is mounted on the second shelf down. That would place inside the torso and depending on your WIFI signal direction you may have lots of metal and devices between it and your router. I was afraid of this same issue so I have my two EZB's mounted on the top shelf to get the most unobstructed signal possible. One EZB is for all the torso and head robot functions along with sound streaming. The other EZB just runs both arms. I was also worried with two EZB's being so close to each other that the WIFI radio signals would interfere with each other. I have each mounted about 5 inches apart and there seems to be no issues with interference. However I was having trouble at first with one EZB connecting and not the other. I set a static IP address for each EZB in my router and also have and Engenius Access Point that they attach to. That gives me very strong signal strength close to the robot. Once I did these two things I have had no issues with connections. :)

The second question; When your radar rotates back and forth (along with the bubble lifter pipe that runs down through the CSS) do you exuberance the collar twisting with the movement and unlocking it's self? I see you have a hook latching system for your collar to lock it down the CSS. I assume you set the collar down on your CSS and twist it in place to secure it. My Collar tend to move a little when the radar rotates and after a while I need to re-lock it in place. After viewing Chris P's HD pictures on his DVD I see the orignal B9 had a clip and screw in the very rear where the collar joined to the torso. I bet it's there to keep this from happening when Bob May used his head to move the radar back and forth and bubble up and down. I plan to add this clip and screw to keep my collar in place.

Third question. What are you using in the center of your CSS to guide the Bubble Lifter pipe. It looks like a PVC fitting. I'm also using a PVC fitting but it's much more bulky and bigger. I had problems with binding and had to do a lot of sanding and aligning from level to level. It was a pain but is heavy duty and solid now. I'm not sure if it was really necessary to go that HD and was a pain in the but. LOL.

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Anyway, Nice work and please keep in touch. I'm very interested in your path.

Have fun!
Australia
#77  
Hi Dave,

I haven't forgotten about you. :) Been busy again. I took a bunch of pictures last night to help answer your questions but i need to sort them and label them yet.

I should be able to spend more time to upload the pics and answer your questions tonight.

Steve
#78  
Thanks Steve. No worries my friend. No hurry either. :)
Australia
#79  
Hi Dave,

With regards to the EZB mounted inside the torso, yes I have had the torso on with seemingly few problems with connection. Sometimes It does disconnect from the router but the router is installed way up the other end of the house and the robot is down the other end. I do want to upgrade my router and move it to a more central location in the house as I have had some problems with the laptops in the house disconnecting or having a poor signal also from the router. This sort of leads me to question of my own. Every time I run the INIT script, It wont connect. I then have to scan in the Connection box in ARC to find the EZBs and the addresses always have changed since the last time I connected them (From one day to another). I think you may have answered this question in your above post when you said you set a static IP address in the router for each EZB. Not sure if this is the answer or even how to do it.

My radar doesn't seem to loosen the collar from the CSS with radar movement. Just luck I suppose. (More unicorn than class). My collar has three locating blocks which fit into slots cut into the top shelf of the CSS and they fit snuggly between the torso top ring and the CSS. Also the metal hooks are snug as well and when I locate the collar onto the hooks I need to give the collar a quick twist to lock in the hooks. Seems to be firm enough not to twist off.

EDIT: (more unicorn than class).......? Wait.. What? That's not what I typed... rhymes with class though... Laughed my unicorn off!

The center guide in the CSS for the neck tube was again, more luck than good planning ;) I originally had a piece of PVC pipe that fitted perfectly through the hole in the radar and of course use that for the neck tube of the bubble lifter. I was however going to have to make some sort of guide for the neck tube in the CSS as I couldn't find anything to fit the pipe which would allow it to slip through. I also had made my own neck bracket from modified PVC pipe fittings and acrylic that fitted the pipe. I mounted a plastic Brain cup, (From Fred B.), to that and a beautiful laser cut metal brain, (made by a local B9 Builder). I have since decided to replace the plastic brain cup and neck bracket with a Norm S. aluminum ones... but the new neck bracket was too small to mount properly into my PVC neck tube. *tired* So I bought some slightly smaller PVC tube for the neck (I did need to heat it and stretch it to fit the Norm's neck Bracket), but this change in pipe brought about an unexpected bonus. Before with the larger pipe, I couldn't find anything to fit it for the center guide in the CSS. With this new pipe, I found a flange that fitted it perfectly with enough clearance to allow the pipe to slide up and down with no binding. I have two of them, one in the CSS and one in the radar. I spent ages in the hardware store fiddling with pipes and fittings until I found parts that would work together. The flange was intended to fit into a larger pipe, (not have a smaller pipe pass through it), and the pipe was from a different range of pipes. Some pipes use internal measurements and some use external measurements. I just mixed and matched until I found something that would fit all my needs.

Anyhow, I think I have waffeled on long enough :D Here are some pictures of some of my work

Steve
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#80  
Holy cow. I'm speechless. The CSS and everything that has gone into it is a work of art. You're a very talented guy. It's a shame you will be bottling it all up inside the torso. The for-planning that had to have gone into this must have taken you a very long time. You obviously know what our doing.

Thanks for sharing. :)
Australia
#81  
Thanks Dave *blush* but you're way too kind.
I am proud of how he's coming along so far but there are still plenty of things I would like to improve on. I've lost count how many times I have re-made, re-mounted, replaced or re-wired something because I wasn't happy with it. I still now go to add something to the CSS only to find out that it will impact or clash with the placement of something else not previously thought of and again, the snowball effect happens all over. I try so hard to think of everything that will be in the CSS and how best to locate everything for functionality, space saving and aesthetics, but despite all that thinking, I still run into lots of hurdles... but in saying that, this B9 is a labor of love and I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from it.

Your CSS on the other hand, in fact the whole robot is world class and I can only imagine how much time and effort has gone into it. In my opinion, your robot would have to be the best autonomous B9 in the world. Truly a work of art and an inspiration to the rest of us B9ers, especially me. Whenever I need inspiration, I just watch some of your videos. Just incredible

I will try to make a video of the radar and bubble lifter in action today and then try even harder to work out how to upload it ;)

Thanks again for the kind words Dave

Steve
PRO
Synthiam
#82  
Maaaaaaaaaaan is that ever clean @steve. Wow! You're putting us all to shame:D

I don't think i've ever seen a robot build with so much care in the wiring - that's an entire project just in itself. Amazing
#84  
OK Steve. that left me feeling like I wanted a cigarette and I don't even smoke. LOL

Seriously though, The lifter action is so smooth. That actuator is a lot faster then I thought it would be. Seems like a very natural and human speed. Are you able to stop it at different positions and control the speed? Are you using the Sabertooth and roo to drive this? Sorry if you have already shared this info with me and I forgot. Heck somtimes I cant remember what I had for breakfast. LOL.

If I had to rebuild my lifter I'd go your route. I'm not entirely happy with my servo driven fork design.

I really did enjoy that vid. Thanks for sharing. ;)
Australia
#85  
The actuator is connected via a Sabertooth and roo and can be stopped in any position and any speed. I simply wrote a quick script to run it full up and full down on repeat so I could video it moving, It uses a 100mm slide potentiometer for feedback. You can see it in the last 20 seconds of the video
#86  
Dude, say what you will about me (and thanks for your kind words, by the way. My wife thinks your eating to much Vegemite) but your work rivals mine in every way. Your work gives new meaning to Thunder Down Under. LOL. ;) I'm seriously thinking about scrapping my entire bubble lifter and rebuilding it as a copy of yours. I've always worried a little about how long my setup would last. Mostly worried about the expensive HD servo wearing out. Its also complex needing two extra servos to pull resting support blocks out of the way when I want the bubble to move all the way down to the radar. However your design really looks wonderfully simple and bulletproof. Using that liner pot is brilliant. I had read that they weren't all that reliable but it looks like it's working well and the Kangaroo likes it just fine. Also I love the roller ball between the actuator and the neck tube. What a great stress relief point and way to separate the motor from the rotating load. Where did you get this roller ball fitting? I see ServoCity sell them but yours looks better. At the very least I'm going to adapt this roller design into my system. If your willing to guide me with the proper parts, where you got them and how you installed them I would be grateful. It almost looks like there is a fitting that slips up into the neck pipe and you have it fastened in place with countersunk pan head screws or bolts.

Thanks for showing off. ;)
Australia
#87  
Wow I'm so flattered but we'll have to agree to disagree. Your'e still far and away the Master B9 builder in my book.

I cant take credit for the neck tube roller ball castor idea. I saw in in a video by Greg Logue showing his new and improved Bubble Lifter design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOICtuLYBoA
You can see the ball castor at the 2:22 minute mark. I was thinking to do the same as Greg and use a motor with an off-center wheel but decided to go with a high speed linear actuator instead.

The roller ball castor, I bought it off ebay. Here's a link to one the size I used but there's heaps of choices
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-4-10x-32mm-Wide-Screw-Mounted-Furniture-Trolley-Rack-Ball-Swivel-Caster-Castor-/401044714205?var=&hash=item5d6020b2dd:m:msE1VXcFDlouHeIhgD8eZUg

I was planning to pull the neck tube apart tonight to show you how I made it but yet again I have run out of time *tired* I will endeavor to get it done for you in a day or two

Steve
#88  
Steve, Please don't take apart your creation. You have enough to do and I think I have a good idea how to do this. I hate to see you dismantle your hard work. No need to do build it twice.

Thanks for the links they really help and are a pleasure following.
Australia
#89  
Hi Dave,

Too Late :D But really, It's no problem Dave, It comes apart easy. I went back to the hardware store to take photos of the bits I bought as well. The tube I used, (I'm afraid this is all in millimeters ;)) was 40mm light duty. There is also a 40mm high pressure version but the walls are thicker and I couldn't find any fittings to fit inside snugly that I could modify to support the ball castor, either too big or too small. I ended up using a couple of 25mm caps that are designed for 25mm high pressure pipe (measured internally) They fitted quite tightly inside the 40mm LD pipe. I cut one of the caps right down to make a support for the ball castor, thinking about it now, I should have simply filled it something like Bondo and sanded it flat. Instead I pressed into the cap a bit of 25mm pipe and cut it off to make the walls thicker to give the castor more to sit on than just the cap walls. As you can see it it looks a bit crappy as I took to it with a Dremil tool to recess the castor a little to hold it in the center when the second cap is pressed over it to hold It in place. Anyhow, there's probably a million (better) ways to mount the castor in the end of the tube but this is how I did it.
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I too was worried about the linear pot not working well with the sabertooth but it seems to work fine. Something I do need to test though is the linear actuator with some weight on top of it. I need to add about 5Kg to it, (my head section weighs about 5Kg), and test it with that. The actuator is apparently rated to 10Kg according to the specs, so I'm hoping it will do it with ease. Time will tell.

Steve