Sunday 2/14/2016

I need 1 robot chassis, with separate computers controlling the individual functions of:

Movement

Sensor Input

Left Arm

Right Arm

Speech

These 5 computers will be run in parallel, each capable of using their computer core independently but simultaneously with the others in response to commands.

The commands need to come from either another computer via wireless or bluetooth, verbally, or in response to input from sensors.

Start of Conversion Process.

First remove existing circuit boards and wiring.

Keep all boards and wiring intact for later use or resale.

I removed all the existing wiring, clips, retainers and circuit boards and put them in a separate box so that later I could either re-use them, examine them, or sell them on eBay if necessary.

Cleaned up all the existing chassis parts in preparation for mounting new circuit boards.

Cleaned drive motor and tested existing motor line conditioning filter to make sure the components are ok.

Mounted H-Bridge and connected drive motor for testing.

Tested Drive motor and it is smooth in rotation - both directions.  There is a little jitter switching from one direction to the other and I will have to see if I can make an electronic brake that discharges the capacitors to keep the power from causing jitter.

**Problem**  The rotation motor is a 6 wire stepper motor and it cannot be hooked up to the same H-Bridge with the DC drive motor.  Not enough inputs/outputs.  If I use 2 separate H-Bridges, then I cannot have them both tied to the direction and drive control in the interface…

This is going to cause some issues.  I might need to add another computer in here to deal solely with the drive interface so that I can control both motors with one board and still have only one I2C connection to give them signals.

**Research** Can both motors be controlled from one Arduino with an H-Bridge and Stepper Driver and have the Arduino talk to another computer via I2C for direction, distance and speed inputs?

**Research** Can I find another motor that will mount in the same place as the stepper and have it be another simple DC motor and control the rotation accurately?

**Research** How much power is needed in the rotation motor to turn the robot when either stationary or moving?

What is total weight of robot and how many ounce inches of torque do I need to provide…and now much power will this take (voltage)?

<sigh> I thought I was going to get further today but I ran into more questions than I have answers for … gotta do some research.