Please excuse me if this isn’t the right spot, it’s not really a robot.
A while back I had asked a question about the 21v3 motor controller Serial commands and a 21v3 motor controller Thanks for the answer Paul. He had asked me to post my project when I was done, so here it is.
We have an old tractor that has one use in life, pushing trucks while loading them, and then out of muddy fields.
The guys that helped work on the tractor call it the FrankenSteiger (Steiger is the manufacturer) The tractor was built in 1979. It’s ugly, and old, and has somewhere around 12,000 hours on it. We installed a motor out of a garbage truck and an Allison automatic transmission out of a dump truck in the tractor. We originally mounted a big manual shift lever in the cab. Turns out that it was difficult for the operator to push the trucks, shift, and watch to make sure we get the truck loaded right. Our tractors that had electronic shift are much easier to drive.
So, I used an Arduino microcontroller, a 21v3 motor controller, and a Firgelli Automation linear actuator to make life a little easier. The control box I made up is mounted to the armrest in the tractor. The Arduino and the motor controller are mounted inside the box.
The linear actuator is mounted on the side of the transmission and moves the gear selector lever, sorry I don’t have any pictures of that.
The top switch is a locking toggle selects forward and reverse, the bottom rocker switch selects the gears 1-5 in forward range. The LED’s light up to show amber for reverse, green for neutral, and red for gears 1 through 5.
The locking toggle prevents the operator from accidentally bumping the tractor into gear, and the arduino is programmed to select neutral when the tractor is started. If the tractor is started in forward or reverse range, the controller will move the transmission to neutral, and flash the LED’s to indicate the problem.
Since farming is difficult when it’s 10 degrees out, we’ve tested the tractor by moving snow. I’ll try to get a video of it soon. So far we’re pretty happy with the combination.
I have a few other ideas for the Arduino/Pololu combination, so you may hear more from me. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.