Subject:
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Smart Motor
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 9 Sep 2004 00:59:23 GMT
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Highlighted:
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(details)
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After reading Dave Koudys’ conversation with fellow RTL’ers about installing a DCC decoder directly into a
Technic motor, I became inspired to actually build such a beast:
If you click on the above image and look closely, you can see the DCC decoder
sandwiched between the electrical plate on top and the motor element below. As
you can see, it’s pretty tight in there. I used a Z-scale decoder (the Digitrax
DZ123) as it’s one of the smallest decoders available, but it still required me
to trim the underside of the black electrical pad and the red insulation
material that encases the decoder to get everything to fit properly.
Here’s a view of the electrical components soldered together before
installation:
So, why is it a smart motor? Well, the idea is that you can wire many of
these motors in parallel to a single RCX output and still individually control
each of the motors(1):
Power and control information are passed along the two conductors of a standard
Lego electrical wire to each of the motors connected to the RCX output. Control
information is sent by rapidly switching the polarity of the power on the RCX
output in a specific timing sequence as defined by the DCC protocol. In
addition, each smart motor has its own unique address. The DCC decoder in each
motor listens to the control information being sent until its address is
encountered in a command packet. It then executes the command. Each motor can
then be individually set to foward/reverse (126 different speeds) or stopped.
My recent post on this subject
contains some tidbits on the programming interface for BrickOS. Some additional
construction photos can be found in my Brickshelf
folder.
In any case, I’m rather excited by this approach as it still feels very
Lego-like in its simplicity (i.e. simple 2-wire hookup). And, it’s not too
expensive - less than $35US per smart motor.
Mark
(1) That photo is actually a “dramatization” as I’ve only built one of these
smart motors so far - the others are stand-ins for the real thing... :-)
However, I’ve tested it in parallel with my
DCC brick and everything works
peachy!
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Smart Motor
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| (...) Well, you rock! That's exceedingly cool. Please build more! Indeed, you might consider building a largish batch of them -- if you set yourself up assembly-line style, you could probably knock off a couple dozen of them in a few evenings and (...) (20 years ago, 9-Sep-04, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
| | | Re: Smart Motor
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| "Mark Riley" <markril@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:I3r1Ez.1wGL@lugnet.com... (...) Crossposted to lugnet.parts.mod - Mmmmmmmm, modding goodness! -Rob (20 years ago, 11-Sep-04, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.parts.mod)
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