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Comments by Brandon
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Video: Getting started with the Maestro
- 24 November 2021Hello.
Please note that our Micro Metal Gearmotors are brushed DC motors (not brushless). The Maestro cannot directly control a brushed DC motors like that. If you want to control a brushed DC motor through a USB interface, you could use something like our G2 Jrk Motor Controllers, but please note that you would have to add extra components like a potentiometer to do closed-loop position control like a servo. Alternatively, you could use a G2 Simple Motor Controller (SMC) which supports limit switches that you can use to stop the motor at the extremes of your range of motion.
The combination of a Micro Maestro servo controller and a micro servo is probably the more practical option, and it is fairly comparable in size to a Jrk or SMC paired with a Micro Metal Gearmotor, especially if you have to use additional components like a potentiometer or limit switches to get it to behave like you want.
If you want to continue the discussion or need more assistance in choosing components, please post a request for help on our forum, which is a much better place for this kind of discussion, and we would be glad to assist you further.
Brandon
Paul's Wixel-based line following robot: Two Point Four
- 16 September 2021Hello.
We noticed that you asked a similar question on a few of these line-follower blog posts. In order to keep the comments from getting too cluttered, we responded to your post here.
In the future, you might consider posting questions like these on our forum.
Brandon
Nathan's line following robot: Suckbot
- 16 September 2021Hello.
We noticed that you asked a similar question on a few of these line-follower blog posts. In order to keep the comments from getting too cluttered, we responded to your post here.
In the future, you might consider posting questions like these on our forum.
Brandon
Jeremy's line following robot: Zumo Slim
- 16 September 2021Hello.
We noticed that you asked similar questions on a few of these line-follower blog posts; we do not have all of these line following robots accessible anymore to measure them, but they all use a similar strategy with the motors in the rear and the line sensor extended toward the front.
The ideal distance between the ground and the sensor depends on the specific sensor you are using. We list the "Optimal sensing distance" for our QTR reflectance sensors on their respective product pages.
As far as the algorithm, most of our line following robots have used PID control. You can find a good breakdown of how this works from the "Example Project #1: Line Following" section from our 3pi Robot's user's guide.
If you are looking for more advice or have more questions about using our parts in a line following robot, I recommend posting a request for help on our forum.
Brandon
New product: Breakout Board for microSD Card with 3.3V Regulator and Level Shifters
- 6 August 2021Hello, Adam.
It should work fine with 3.3V logic, but you might consider powering the board with a 3.3V source through the "3V3 (OUT)" pin and leaving the VDD pin disconnected to bypass the onboard regulator. Alternatively, you might consider using the simple breakout board for microSD cards since you do not need the additional level shifters.
Brandon
New Tic T500 revision to address problem with missed steps
- 8 June 2021Hello, Israel.
It is not clear to me what exactly you are trying to do, but this is not an appropriate place to answer detailed questions or get into troubleshooting. You might consider posting a request for help on our forum and include a lot more details about what you are doing. Alternatively, you can email us at support@pololu.com.
Brandon
New Product: 5V, 5A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D24V50F5
- 13 April 2021Hello, Don.
Microcontrollers usually have a diode going from each I/O pin to its logic supply. These diodes clamp the voltage on the pins, preventing pull-up resistors like the one on the D24D50F5 board from pulling the pins too high (and the resistor limits the current through the diode), so it is probably fine. However, if you want to be extra safe and not rely on the clamping diodes, you could remove the pull-up resistor from the regulator. The pull-up resistor is the small black component labeled "01D" near the mounting hole in the bottom right-hand corner of this picture of the underside of the regulator.
Brandon
New products (and demo): Force-sensing linear potentiometers and resistors
- 9 March 2021Hello, Paul.
The code for the FSLP demo program shown in the video is linked to in the post above, and you can find it under the
"Resources" tab of the Force-Sensing Linear Potentiometer: 4.0″×0.4″ Strip product page as well.
Brandon
New product: A-Star 328PB Micro
- 18 February 2021The "Connecting to the serial interface" section of the A-Star 328PB User's Guide has instructions specifically for using our USB AVR Programmer v2.1, including a picture of the connected boards. If you requesting something beyond what we already have there, can you elaborate?
Brandon
Brandon's line following robot: The Chariot
- 8 December 2020Hello, Sultan.
The main reason I used a voltage regulator was to keep the motor voltage consistent even when the batteries start draining or get freshly charged. I noticed with my previous line followers that I would spend a good deal of time increasing the speed and tuning the robot, only to have the performance get worse when I recharged the batteries. I prefer a regulated motor supply voltage to keep the robot's performance predictable, especially during a competition when you might not have time to fully charge your batteries between each run.
I have not tried a swivel caster with a robot of this scale, but in my experience with larger robots, swivel casters tend to re-direct the robot when attempting to turn since they are directional. The benefit of using a ball caster is that it can freely move in any direction at any time. Since your robot will be on a carpeted surface, you might consider using a larger ball caster than the 3/8" one I used. We carry some all the way up to 1" diameter.
Brandon