Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 2Putting the Hardware Together
In assembling the hardware, I'm assuming you are going the easy route like I did. Hacking is fun, but I certainly don't want to reinvent the wheel. Stray from the path at your own risk.
The connections are as follows:
Arduino: 12V power supply plugged into the 2.1mm jack. The board can get power from the USB connected to program it, but USB cannot supply enough power to run the train. Trust me, I've accidentally tried more than once.
Motor Shield: The two leads from the train track go to the motor shield instead of that cheap plastic transformer made in China. I've got them hooked into the "M1" terminals. Change this, and you will have to change in your program. Certainly not hard to do, just one more got-cha. Another little detail: the white jumper on the "PWR" leads tells the board to get power from the Arduino, which as we saw earlier, is coming from a 12V wall wart. See the website if that confuses you. It did me. Alternatively, you can wire power right into the shield. The voltage doesn't need to be exact. You could even run the wires from your original transformer into the shield and just set it to full power. I think they put out 16VDC or so.
WiiAdapter: Confusingly, this can go into the chuk in either of two ways. The correct way is for the contact on the adapter marked "NC" to go where there is no contact on the Wii. I've got the connector pins going to the Arduino analog pins A2, A3, A4, A5. Again, not set in stone, but will have to match the program. There are some good diagrams and such at todbot's website.
The connections are as follows:
Arduino: 12V power supply plugged into the 2.1mm jack. The board can get power from the USB connected to program it, but USB cannot supply enough power to run the train. Trust me, I've accidentally tried more than once.
Motor Shield: The two leads from the train track go to the motor shield instead of that cheap plastic transformer made in China. I've got them hooked into the "M1" terminals. Change this, and you will have to change in your program. Certainly not hard to do, just one more got-cha. Another little detail: the white jumper on the "PWR" leads tells the board to get power from the Arduino, which as we saw earlier, is coming from a 12V wall wart. See the website if that confuses you. It did me. Alternatively, you can wire power right into the shield. The voltage doesn't need to be exact. You could even run the wires from your original transformer into the shield and just set it to full power. I think they put out 16VDC or so.
WiiAdapter: Confusingly, this can go into the chuk in either of two ways. The correct way is for the contact on the adapter marked "NC" to go where there is no contact on the Wii. I've got the connector pins going to the Arduino analog pins A2, A3, A4, A5. Again, not set in stone, but will have to match the program. There are some good diagrams and such at todbot's website.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
