New Robot Biulder with Sidwinder control

Hi by way of introduction
I€™m Craig and I am about to finish a heavy weight robot for the summer I have a Sidewinder speed controller and this is to control a couple of 750w Bosch motors powered by hawker batteries the volts are 24 the control will be spectrum radio, I think most of this stuff is run of the mill for a heavy weight bit being new to this. I would really welcome advice as to the best way to configure this lot the robot was going to be a spinner but this has been put on hold so you may see it with a 14lb hammer head bolted to the back.

Bind the Spekturm BR6000 receiver to the transmitter... plug in the channels from the Sidewinder....and off you go.

Or have you a specific concern ....or indeed want a step by step walk thro ?

be aware that the sidewinder current limit adjuster is not the same on any motor.
On motors such as LEMs and powerdrives, the full rotation is used, however, for motors with higher impedance, such as drill motors, a quarter of the rotation will give you your full adjustment. The bosch 750 would be somewhere in between. I mention this because, assuming it was linear throughout might put you in a situation where you assume you have set your current limiter to about 3/4 so about 70amps is in fact at maximum, so the current limiter is disabled.

If you need any further help or information, please email me anytime.

Woody many thanks I hoped some one would give me a straight and simple almost idiot-proof answer. I am more mechanical in experience, than electronic so your advice gives me hope.
James thanks for the specific advice on the limiter I have read something about this problem before would you suggest half way travel on the limiter to be about right don€™t worry, I wont blame you if the thing goes bang!!!

it shouldnt go bag anyway to be honest, but the limiter is there for a reason. I run wheely big cheese with the limiter disabled, simply because it isnt run very hard or for long, so Im not worried about the sidewinders survival. The reason I mention it, is because it is a feature of the product, and you should be able to make best use of a feature, as youve paid to have it. Plus, you may accidentally have the opposite problem, where the robot struggles for power because the limiter is set very low. I prefer to give too much info than not enough.

This characteristic is purely a side effect of catering for a wide variety of motors. As I say, Im happy to help anytime.

It€™s all a steep learning curve for me, I think I will give it a go and see how the robot runs. I think my robot is about as simple as it gets two motors one speed controller and 24volts lead acid. The weapon was to be a disc run by a perm motor but with the problem with safety this is not a complication I now have to deal with.
I must say though I do agree with the safety people on this, I for one would be devastated if someone was hurt or worse by my robot at a show. Anyway I€™m going on many thanks for your help and hope to see you at one of the events soon.

O.K. Graig,

We are using the right hand transmitter stick.

Stick your bot up on blocks so that the wheels DONT touch the ground.

1. With the power off, plug the bind plug into the BAT port.
2. Power on the receiver by connecting the battery to any unused port. The blue LED should be blinking...This is the BEC plug from the Sidewinder ...and youll need to power up the Sidewinder by attaching the main batteries.
3. Position the throttle stick in the desired fail-safe position (normally low throttle).
4. Press and hold the bind button on back of the transmitter while turning on the transmitter. The button should
flash for about 5 seconds, then both LED€™s (transmitter and receiver) will go solid green.
Important: Remove the bind plug after binding.

You should only ever need to do the above once and can ignore it if youve already done the binding process.

Now turn everything off.

The other 2 plugs from the Sidewinder go to Aile and Ele on the BR6000 receiver.

Aile for Steering and Ele for Throttle.

Power up the bot and transmitter again.

Push the transmitter stick up/forward.. both motors should rotate as if driving the bot forwards ...if one motor is going in the wrong direction swap over the wires supplying it.

Try the left and right on the transmitter stick.

Turn left ...left wheel rotates backwards & right wheel forwards.

Turn right ....right wheel rotates backwards & left wheel forwards.

hopefully everything rotates in the correct direction....if not swap over the wires supplying the motors from one side of the bot to the other ....keeping the supply colours in the same motor connections.

Hope I have the above correct.

Im sure someone will correct me if Im wrong.:)

If keeping the same colour wires in the same connections doesnt work .....swap em over ....Its a while since I set mine up.



(Message edited by woody on June 11, 2007)

Ran out of time on the edit ...
Hope this makes more sense.

If swapping motor connections from one side to the other & keeping the same colour wires in the same connections doesnt work .....swap over the colours supplying each motor....Its a while since I set mine up.

Woody your a star many thanks for the info i do understand most of it and the bits i dont will be clear when i do the wrong thing the first time thanks again

Just to let you know the system worked first time and in the right direction!!!! I was told this speed controller dose not need a heat sink and should be fitted in foam rubber how are most of these speed controllers fitted in working robots. Also how do you secure the radio receiver to the robot I have a spectrum 6000 receiver in this robot. Again thanks for all your advice.

We out our receivers in a little box, and make sure we have everything shockmounted with rubber foam or rubber mounting blocks whenever possible.

Quite a few people have got into using high strength Velcro as a form of shock proofing and attachment for electronics, but really nothing can beat a good foam padded box (which luckily can weigh next to nothing!).