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Step 5Calibrating your robot
Connect the serial cables (one to the top center, and the other to the cargo bay port) and reattach the wood leaving the PC board in the cargo bay.
One of the first things you'll need to calibrate are the two control motors. The output from the command module is 20V, this is likely far too much for the motors. You can add voltage regulators to limit this voltage to a level that is safe for the motors.
20V is far too much for most DC motors. You'll need to test them at other voltages to figure out where they work best.
I used old RC car battery chargers to supply the voltage to test the motors with. I found out that my Carriage motor worked well at 12V and that the marker motor worked at 6V. So I just bought a couple voltage regulators rated at those voltages and 1A. You want to wire these in series with the motors (that is, in the middle of one the wires running to the robot). If these regulators have a ground pin, it might be a good idea to run up an extra wire from the ground on the PC board.
If you haven't already installed all of your iRobot software including Programer's Notepad and the virtual serial port do so now. Instructions are available in the documentation (which is completely available online here)
Follow the instructions in the Command Module in the "your first project section". Add the Printer.c file as the main file for the code. Be sure to modify the "target =" in the makefile. it should read "TARGET = printer"
Connect the serial cables (one to the top center, and the other to the cargo bay port) and reattach the wood leaving the PC board in the cargo bay.
You'll also want to modify the wait values on the program "printer.c". Namely, you'll want to trim the wait times in the "car" and "mark" function. These will vary with the differing sizes and speeds of your motors. You'll want to trim them so that the marks overlap slightly and are plenty heavy.
Follow the instructions in the manual to compile, download and start the program on the robot (my tip: if it's not working push the reset button).
You made need to spend a fair amount of time calibrating the robot. Pictured below is one of my many test papers.
When everything is trimmed right, the robot should work like this:
One of the first things you'll need to calibrate are the two control motors. The output from the command module is 20V, this is likely far too much for the motors. You can add voltage regulators to limit this voltage to a level that is safe for the motors.
20V is far too much for most DC motors. You'll need to test them at other voltages to figure out where they work best.
I used old RC car battery chargers to supply the voltage to test the motors with. I found out that my Carriage motor worked well at 12V and that the marker motor worked at 6V. So I just bought a couple voltage regulators rated at those voltages and 1A. You want to wire these in series with the motors (that is, in the middle of one the wires running to the robot). If these regulators have a ground pin, it might be a good idea to run up an extra wire from the ground on the PC board.
If you haven't already installed all of your iRobot software including Programer's Notepad and the virtual serial port do so now. Instructions are available in the documentation (which is completely available online here)
Follow the instructions in the Command Module in the "your first project section". Add the Printer.c file as the main file for the code. Be sure to modify the "target =" in the makefile. it should read "TARGET = printer"
Connect the serial cables (one to the top center, and the other to the cargo bay port) and reattach the wood leaving the PC board in the cargo bay.
You'll also want to modify the wait values on the program "printer.c". Namely, you'll want to trim the wait times in the "car" and "mark" function. These will vary with the differing sizes and speeds of your motors. You'll want to trim them so that the marks overlap slightly and are plenty heavy.
Follow the instructions in the manual to compile, download and start the program on the robot (my tip: if it's not working push the reset button).
You made need to spend a fair amount of time calibrating the robot. Pictured below is one of my many test papers.
When everything is trimmed right, the robot should work like this:
printer.c11 KB| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
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