All answers needed about differential steering

[Guest]

Sorry everyone, I hate to keep pestering you with new friends, but I am haveing sever trouble in working out differential steering. I obviously know what it is but how do I get it to work with a normal speed controller? Is it just wiring? Please help. I need all tips possible.
Thanks and sorry to pester,

Rob

[ady]

All answers needed about differential steering

robert, if you want to run 2 speedos on one stick, so when you press forward or backwards both speedos work together you need a spektrum transmitter which will mix them for you, and also when you press left one motor will turn left and the other right and so on. if you buy a speedo such as a sabertooth technobots it will do all this for you without the spektrum. (but i would get a spektrum as you will never have interference problems.

[grant_ploughbot]

All answers needed about differential steering

im not too sure on your design, but i presume it will be similar to everyone elses. One motor drives the left side, and one drives the right. This makes it work like tank steering, so when you turn left, the left motor will reverse and the right goes forward. To achieve this, as adrian says some speedcontrollers have mixing built in such as the sabertooth, if not then good transmitters such as spektrums have mixing in, and if you have neither of these options you can buy a mixer which plugs inline with the receiver that mixes the channels for you.

[woody]

All answers needed about differential steering

So Robert ...just in case it isnt clear.

Youll need TWO speed controllers.... one for each side.

Its all a bit confusing to start off with .

Try and get to one of the events ,look inside the bots and ask questions.

[beast]

All answers needed about differential steering

2 basic speed controlers like racing car ones but
you can get others which do the 2 moters ie as Adrian says the sabertooth it all depends how much money you want to spend.

Beauty uses the cheapest one on the market, with drill moters and a must is the Specktum

[grant_ploughbot]

All answers needed about differential steering

A few of the speedcontrollers listed will only controll a single channel such as electronize, Mtroniks etc, but the sabertooth, scorpion xl/xxl will both run both channels so you would only need 1. sorry for not mentioning that.

[woody]

All answers needed about differential steering

Told you it could get confusing.
I / we sometimes forget that newbies know little or nothing and miss out essential information.
Controllers like the Sabretooth and Scorpion are DUAL controllers essentially TWO motor controllers in ONE.... sometimes called Electronic Speed Controls or ESCs

[beast]

All answers needed about differential steering

Robert just hope you can take it all in


but all help is always here

[Guest]

All answers needed about differential steering

O.K. Im sorry the origanal message was supposed to read: I hate to keep pestering you with new POSTS but I am HAVING SEVERE trouble with differential steering. Lost it for a second there. Anyway I diagress, back to the topic. So if I have two speed controllers how do I make them run off the same remote? And do I only need two channel for the drive as it is tank type? And does this mean that I need another Speed Controller for the axe or do I need an extra channel on one of the Speed Controllers? Sorry I am very cerffudelled. Please answer all the questions and keep posts coming in.

Thanks all,

Rob

[beast]

All answers needed about differential steering

the remote will normaly operate 6 chans you simply plug in 2 differnt wires into a reciver then if( they r the right way round the wheels turn for u

we are going back to basics

[woody]

All answers needed about differential steering

Lets assume youve bought a Spektrum DX6 and BR6000 Receiver.

The Transmitter has 2 control sticks and each stick controls two channels...there are also 2 switches that control one channel each.

A total of 6 available channels.

Assume that your bot has 2 motors one for each side ...so we need to control the speed of these motors.

Purchase a suitable dual controller or two single controllers.

These controllers come with leads that will plug into your receiver and will also come with 2 battery power supply wires and 2 or 4 wires ( single or dual controller ) that will go to your motor/s.

Then simply attach the correct wires to your battery and motor/s and plug in the Radio control wires to the receiver.

The reciever then takes commands from the transmitter and passes them on to the controllers which in turn vary the speed and direction of the drive motors according to movement of the transmitter stick.

A 3rd channel on the receiver ...taking instructions from the transmitter... would be used to operate any switch or speed controller required for a weapon.

Helpfull or clear as mud?

[woody]

All answers needed about differential steering

Correction:-

Not ALL controllers come with the power and motor leads attached some have blocks that you must add your own wires to.

Heres a pic of a Sidewinder dual controller showing the main power and motor leads at the front... in the background you can see the wires that would plug into your receiver.

http://www.robotpower.com/images/Sidewinder2-rear-wires-sm.jpghttp://www.robotpower.com/images/Sid...r-wires-sm.jpg

And heres a smaller one also showing the connections ... this one has an extra 3rd channel to aid inverted driving.
http://www.robotpower.com/products/scorpion_XL_info.htmlhttp://www.robotpower.com/products/s...n_XL_info.html

(Message edited by woody on February 25, 200

[leorcc]

All answers needed about differential steering

So in short:

You need a transmitter (tx);
this controls your receiver (RX);
Attached to the receiver are 2 servo wires;
Attached to those wires are either (a) 1 dual motor controller or (b) 2 single motor controllers;
Attached to the controller(s) are the motors that spin the wheels.

No matter how you steer, tankstyle, steering wheel, or single stick, you will always have that setup. For drive you will always need 2 channels.

[Guest]

All answers needed about differential steering

O.K thanks all. Woody the advice is Helpful. I do get it now. And so if I want to also use an axe with it, what do I do? I know I dont plug into the co2 canister, so what do I do? Thanks for the advice though.

Thanks,

Rob

[woody]

All answers needed about differential steering

I know I dont plug into the co2 canister, so what do I do?

Some pneumatics research first.

http://www.teamdavinci.com/understanding_pneumatics.htmhttp://www.teamdavinci.com/understanding_pneumatics.htm

Then ask some more questions....

Note that the pneumatics will be turned on and off by a R/C Switch ...this will be plugged into a spare socket on the receiver and activated from the Transmitter.

(Message edited by woody on February 26, 200