RPi rover roving remote controlled for the first time

[lodger]

Despite playing KSP I also like to play around with real hardware from time to time. Four (!) years ago I started a little project, a small raspberry pi based rover, which I kept on my shelf for ages once the technical stuff was working. Now, a few days ago I picked up the loose ends and finally wrote some simple code to actually *do* something with it - and it didn't go *boom* either. So, here's a little clip showing you what I'm talking about. Boy am I proud 

 

[Nuke]

been waning to do one of these, except with a 3d printed hovercraft. right now its a vague idea in my head. i did test up a mockup of a 3d printed lift fan and it seems i can lift the neccisary weight with it. i was just using a cardboard box and a plastic bag for the skirt (my plan is to use a bicycle inner tube on the final version). main problem is i dont have any bi directional brushless speed controllers to drive the propulsion fans. ive contemplated doing dual pivoted fans that can be flipped 180 using a continuous rotation servo. also considered doing variable pitch fans, i actually 3d printed a failed prototype for these. i also tried a ducted system with a single fan and servo activated thrusters, and those didnt have much thrust. i dont think a single fan and a large rudder would give me the control i want, but it would work and i wouldn't have to buy anything. all roads lead me to a place i dont want to go, where i have to buy additional parts i dont already have in my parts bins.

electronics side im just going to get a bunch of level shifters to drive the servo control pins from the gpio header.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Nuke

[lodger]

8 hours ago, Nuke said:

electronics side im just going to get a bunch of level shifters to drive the servo control pins from the gpio header.

That's pretty much what i did with that rover. The motor controller was already assembled and ready to run so I just needed to get two level shifters and some wires to connect it all. Well, I did some experimenting using a breadboard, so I could check out how WiringPi and softPWM work, but despite that all I had to do was add pull-down resistors to the level shifters (otherwise the wheels would start spinning once the Raspberry Pi is powered on).

Edited April 4, 2017 by lodger