I just purchased the Dagu Tracked Rover 5 chassis but cannot find any documentation on it. Specifically, is there a schematic or wiring diagram for the encoders?
Thanks!
Hello.
All of the documentation we have for the Rover 5 chassis can be found on its product page. The connections for the wires are explained in the “Using the Chassis” section under the description. If there is something specific you don’t understand, please let me know, and I will try to clarify.
- Grant
Thanks, Grant - I did miss the written description of the encoder function on the product page. The information there is indeed sufficient for what I plan to do.
I know I’m bringing an old thread back from the dead, but I’m wondering about the wiring of my Rover 5 (four encoder motor) tank to the board. I get (obviously) the power connectors. And I know that each motor has an additional four wires (blk, yellow, red, white). From what I’ve seen in other Rover builds, it looks like go (if you have the board oriented so that power for motors 1 and 2 are at the bottom) on the outside four pins for each motor encoder. For each motor, going from bottom pin to top (of the four pin set for the encoder) I see 5v, the two encoder wires, ground. If that’s correct, then my question is… how do I wire the board to the Arduino?
Do I use the four wires on the inside (left set of four) in the encoder set? Or the others on the other side (left) of the board itself?
In case you can’t tell, encoders and motor controllers are new to me. I’ve been using the Makeblock setup and while it’s great you don’t have to do wiring - you don’t learn wiring.
Can anyone offer some assistance here? If you can - where do the connections go to the Arduino (I have a Mega2560 I was thinking of using for this)? Obviously, given my short background in this hobby, the more descriptive you can be, the more likely I’ll be to “get it”. I’m learning schematics but I’m still confused by them, so if you have a photo of an existing setup or a Fritzing of the two boards, I would certainly appreciate the help.
Thanks in advance.
Hello.
We do not have a wiring diagram for the Dagu Rover 5 chassis. You will want the grounds all connected to ground on your Arduino, and you can supply power to the encoders (VCC) from the 5V pin on the Arduino. You might find the Arduino tutorial helpful in using the encoders and determining which pins you should connect the encoders outputs to. By the way, if you do not need all four encoders on your chassis you might consider just setting it up for two encoders for simplicity.
Grant
Thanks for the reply Grant! I imagine I don’t need all four encoders, so I’m going to try just wiring one from each side.
Between the Arduino and the SparkFun board is my only (hardware!) question. Each encoder has eight pins - four near the edge of the board marked output (plus each pin marking) and four on the inside of those marked input. The others, on the other side of the board, a group of four for each motor again include the pwm pins. I’m thinking I only use those in the event I’m NOT using encoders. Does that sound correct?
Thanks
I am not sure which 8 pins you mean, but it sounds like you are asking which connections you should make for each motor. If you tell me your proposed connections or post a diagram of them, I can let you know if your connections make sense.
Grant
Hey Grant - thanks for putting up with my continued (newbie) questions. I truly appreciate the help.
The eight pins I’m referring to are (If you are holding the board with the four motor outputs to the top and bottom) the four sets of eight on the right side of the board. They are labeled: (on the right and from top to bottom of each set) ground, Encoder Input A, Encoder Input B, 5+v and immediately to the left of those: ground, the two encoder outputs (a & b) and the encoder interrupt pin.
On the left side of the board are another set of motor pins (current, direction, pwm and ground).
I have a couple of questions based on that. 1) Do I wire the encoders to the encoder input pins or output pins? 2) If I’m using the encoders, do I need the direction and pwm pins connected to the Arduino?
I’m beginning to understand that the encoder and motor are two distinct elements. So I’m not sure what the input/output from the encoder does. I understand what the output FROM the encoder will be and how it’s used (at least conceptually) but what input would they take?
Again, thanks for the help. I do search as much as I can for answers first, just not getting ones that help.
UPDATE: Since I’m limited to three responses, throwing this in here. I thought Pololu produced a version of the Rover 5 controller board, sorry if I was mistaken. I know both Sparkfun and of course, Dagu, produced versions. I’ve asked both for wiring diagrams but either I can’t communicate my needs (Dagu) or get zero answers.
I had hoped that the connections for the encoders were not board specific, but rather somewhat generic. That was the connections might be something you were familiar with. I actually just found an “instructable” with a wiring diagram using the Dagu board with a Arduino Mega and that should satisfy my needs for now. Hopfully I can get it wired and do some testing.
Thanks, yet again, for your patience.
It sounds like you are asking what connections you should make on a specific board that does not sound like one we carry. If so, you should probably ask the manufacturer of the board for assistance on which pins to use.
Grant