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Subject: 
Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Fri, 13 Nov 1998 20:09:14 GMT
Original-From: 
Kekoa Proudfoot <kekoa@Graphics.Stanford.EDU>
Viewed: 
5604 times
  
> Obviously 00 is the state of the RCX when it is off.  When it is on,
> the wheels are much harder to turn by hand.  The RCX must default to
> state 11 when idle.  Not all motor drivers support this, but this one
> does....

This all depends.  The table you gave (presumably from the date sheet), said:

> The data sheet confirmed something else that I thought was happening...:
> In1     In2
>  1      0         Forward                  turning
>  0      1         Backward                 turning in opposite direction
>  1      1         Brake                    motor is shorted
>  0      0         Off                      motor is disabled

Now, Lego uses Off to mean Brake and Float to Off ...

> That means that there is no coast mode, the RCX starts
> electromagnetically braking as soon as the motor is turned off.

Well, you can set the motor to "float" and you do coast.

> Also, there is constant current leakage whenever there are motors attached.
> Should be pretty low if the motor is not moving, but should climb a
> LOT if the motor is driven by some mechanical force.

Please explain why there is necessarily leakage current when the motor is
shorted.  I can see there being very little leakage current if the CMOS is
done right, but I haven't reviewed the circuit diagram on the data sheet
recently, so I'm not sure if this is the case with the chip in the RCX.

> So, is there any way to disable a motor port in firmware, without
> disconnecting the motor physically?  Could be useful for long running
> battery powered robots that do not need the motors moving all the
> time.

You mean is there a way to set them to float?  Of course.  Is there a
dedicated pin on the RCX to physically stop power from going to the motors,
aside from setting them to float?  Unknown at the moment.

-Kekoa



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
 
(...) Hm. So I just reviewed the data sheet again, and it seems that there is indeed a significant current when the motor is shorted. That sucks. -Kekoa (28 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: moving in a straight line with two motors?
 
(...) kp> There needs to be a link to this somewhere: kp> Peter Phillips pointed out a long while back (my messages from him are kp> dated Sep 21) that the specs to the chip are here: (...) kp> drivers. OK, 500mA per driver. Which, if the rest of my (...) (28 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)

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