Pulled the R/C stuff from my Aristo RS3 and mounted my latest Xbee Widget board. The motor controller works great. The coupler servos need some tweaking but all-in-all it came out pretty well. I have a 5000mah lipo in there which is probably overkill but it fits so I’ll use it. So far it’s two servos, a pololu motor controller, a current sensor, several digital outputs (for lights) and an RFID reader. Hope to get to some real world testing soon once I get it all back together.
Question Martin. What are the servos for?
Bob, he said ““Coupler servo’s””, so, my guess would be the couplers…
Doh! I read that twice as ‘couple of servos’
Ignore me
Sorry, should have worded that better, I have two servos on each end to control body mounted Kadee couplers.
Hey Martin,
Why didn’t you use the Kadee couple that has the servo built into it? Is the Xbee something that you designed and made?
Chuck
Those little blue servos cost about US3 each from Hobby King. http://hobbyking.com.au/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=22927 Add a bit of nylon thread and a stock Kadee coupler.
A lot less expensive than a Kadee servo uncoupler or a Phoenix solenoid uncoupler.
Cool idea for the coupler.
Yes, I looked at the Kadees with the servo and it seemed quite overpriced. So I figured I would give this a go. Tony is correct, these are really inexpensive little fellas, I ordered a bunch of em. One thing I did find out about them, be very careful the pulse widths you crank out to drive them, I burned 3 of them up with too long widths.
Yes, this is my own design for the widgets, I am trying to come up with an open source solution to networking everything via wireless. Unlike some other designs, I’m using the Xbee wireless modules running 802.15.4 to connect everything rather than 802.11.
I’m doing this because, well, I feel more comfortable with a control network that doesn’t have a bunch of extra packet traffic flying around all over the place like 802.11. Plus the topology of the xbee network doesn’t require any sort of access point, everyone is equal, any Xbee can send a message to any other.
You will still be able to interface a smart phone or tablet to this if you want, it will just require a bit of software and an access point (I’m working on that too) One plan is a Raspberry Pi as a web server- I can serve up html5 web pages for control into the Xbee network. That way I’m compatible with any device that has a browser. Android, iOS, windows, linux, anything and don’t have to write native apps for a bunch of devices.
I’m trying to document all my designs including schematics and software (not sure I’m doing a good job at it, but I’ll keep banging on it) you can find them here:
I also post up other odd research and projects on my personal blog
If you look on the files page on controlwidgets, I have several source code libraries, both in Ardunio C++ and Atmel C solutions for Atmel Studio 6. There are also a couple of 3D files, and schematics for the boards are on the pages. I’m open to suggestions to organize it better and if anyone wants to help out with the code or other designs, just let me know.