Darathian
Resolved by Dunning-Kruger!
Since I know some of you have used the Sabertooth and Kangaroo I figured I would ask opinions.
I have decided on the Parralax Arlo base for my next robot chassis. I will use the caster's from parralax.
I will most likely be using the Sabertooth and kangaroo combination for motor controller/PID but I am not decided on this and open to suggestions.
I also find myself in a heated mental debate between the wheel/motor combination from parralax or the Zagros Rex motors and wheels combined with the Sabertooth/Kangaroo.
Item 1:
One of the key items for me is how well the encoders between the two different motor/wheel sets works with the Sabertooth and kangaroo.
Item 2:
The other item floating in my mind is the ground clearance between the two motor/wheel sets. It seems at least to me that the Zagros wheels would provide more ground clearing but since the base plate of the chassis provides stability to the base platform I am not really sure if using the Zagros motors are feasible.
Item 3:
Since I am going to build a body, arms and head on top of the base the torque and weight carrying ability is important.
Item 4:
I need to be able to control both the position and speed of the motors at the same time. For example example I should be able to have to robot move lets say 1 feet at a certain speed.
I know this is kind of an open ended questions but if anyone have used any of these wheel/motor combinations please provide your 2 cents as it relates to the items listed above.
I appreciate any comments or insights you guys can provide.
Just an update of sorts on this. One of my son's friends is in his last semester of College as an EE student. I contacted him last night and he going to take this on as a project. My ultimate goal would be to have a SMC PCB designed and built. He has the datasheets and information from here. I am going to still breadboard the solution when all of the parts get here. The good news is that I have ordered enough parts to make about 10 of these so I will give him 1/2 of the components above to mess with and come up with a board design. My hope is to produce these in a decent quantity that would allow me to sell these components to those that are interested in buying them. By sell, I simply mean to cover the cost of the parts, shipping and manufacturing costs. I wont be making money on these, but it is something that is needed for more than just these motor/encoder/controller combo.
Nothing wrong with making a little money on the side if you can. It's a shame people are so shy about getting something for work and services they provide.
If I could make some money, I would, but it is a pretty unique thing. I searched to see what is out for this though and there really isnt anything hobbyist grade. There are some specific things for specific products. One module I found looks like a circuit breaker for a house. I am sure it is for a PLU control unit for a factory. The cool thing about it is that it would divide by 2 to 256. Kind of a cool concept. A set of dip switches could allow someone to divide by 2, 4 or more by passing the signal through multiple 4013's based on the dip switch config. This could just as easily be done by passing the signal through multiple of these. If only one single needed to be divided and you wanted it to be divided by 4, I would think that you could jumper from A out to B in and then take the result from B to the controller. You could then take 2 of these to divide by 4, one for each signal. I guess you could also just pass A out to A in and B out to B in on two of them. If I went this route, at some point I would have to put a power connector to provide power instead of powering off of the input from the controller.
I wouldn't feel right about taking a design basically given to me by Tony to make money off of. He has helped me plenty. I would probably just sell to cover the cost to make and ship. The thought has also come to mind to sell this as a printed pcb and a kit of parts, but I have no clue at this point.
I am really surprised that there isnt a divide by two module for arduino's. Maybe I just haven't found it yet.
I could take this to silly levels but first I have to get the breadboard working.
No problem David, it would be great if you can sell these useful little boards, I will buy a few off you if you do. If the 4013 board used SMT (surface mount) components then it would be so small that you would hardly notice it in the encoder cable loom. I am always happy to help you guys with hardware ideas if I can, just ask. I been designing electronic circuitry for over 45 years!
Tony
Thanks Tony. I have the first 2 breadboard wired. Just waiting for the 4013's to come in to test.
Circuit has been built but I wont have time to test until this evening. I will post the results hopefully this evening.
Circuit worked well for a while. Divide by 2 was working for both A and B channel on the encoder perfectly.
I dont know what happened but now I get nothing out of it. I verified that the chip gets 5v and that 5v is carried through the circuit. I also replaced the chip with a new one with the same results. I verified that the encoders are still working when attached to the Arduino. For some reason now when I put this Circuit inline, I get nothing out the other end.
I will mess with it tomorrow some more. The good news is that I saw the divide by 2 circuit performing great.
David, do these chips completely fail to function after a time (ie destroyed)? This seems very odd, I cannot think of anything in this setup that would cause this.
Have you taken all unused inputs to ground (pins 4,6,8,10), this is important on the 4013.
Also you could try 74LS74 (or 74HC74 high speed logic) but check the pin out with these chips as its probably different from the 4013.
Tony