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.
I'm sure it is just some of the cheep wire that I was using to connect to the motor or arduino when testing. I'll hook it all back up again and give it another shot today if work doesn't consume too much time.
All unused pins are grounded to keep them low.
Silly question here, but ...
The IC has a notch on one side, a dot on the other and a line on the side with the notch.
In my past experience, the notch indicates the side with pin 1. The dot indicates where pin 1 is. On this chip, these are on opposite ends of the IC. I haven't messed with any that had a line on them like this but I assume that it indicates which end is ground?
So, which takes priority? The dot, or notch to indicate pin 1? If it is the dot, I have this IC plugged in backwards.
Here is a photo of the chip.
Hard to see in the photo but there is the half moon notch on the side with the line.
That's been my experience also Dave. I think I've seen it the other way also once or twice. I can't do it for you right now but try finding the spec sheet on this chip at Mouser or Digikey. That should have the pin out map and tell you what you need.
Edit, if you instead it backwards then you most likely blew it out and need a new one.
Unfortunately, the datasheet shows a dot by pin 1 and the notch by pin 1. On this chip, they are opposite. Probably a cheap Chinese knockoff.
I have some extras, so I will probably just end up having to flip the chip to see what happens.
On a side note, the student that I have helping ran some simulations on the design yesterday and everything worked out. He is drawing up the schematic and pcb layout so that I can have a few boards made to test out. These will not be surface mount at this time. We will get something working on a printed board and then decide if the surface mount option is what we want to do. The cost of doing surface mount design is much higher.
I have to get this done so that I can continue working on the SLAM module. A non moving robot isn't a very good dev platform for SLAM...
I too agree that the notch and the dot are usually on the same end, as with you guys, in past experiences. I see that the dot is also on the right side and that is not the case that I have seen in the past. On most chips that I have played with (not all that many though), pin 1 is on the left side. Just my take on this.