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4wd chassis (baron) + Romeo performance concerns and questions

userHead Account cancelled 2014-01-02 11:43:39 3912 Views1 Replies
Sorry in advance for the silly questions: I'm an absolute newbie when it comes to electronics. In short: Is the Romeo able to properly handle/power the baron motors? Logic would say yes, but I'm having some doubts.

I have a project in mind, and the Baron has the perfect frame for it. The Romeo sounds like a great option: It's convenient, easy and relatively cheap. There's even a bundled deal for the Pirate (which uses the same motors as the Baron I believe) with the Romeo, so one would assume that it would be a great choice.

What I am worried about is performance issues: I have seen multiple comments on various forums and youtube video comments regarding the DFRobot 4wd vehicles (Mainly about the pirate but I assume that it also applies directly to the baron). In some cases, the robot runs great with no issues at all. In others, the robot is barely able to move.

In all the "it runs great" videos and comments I have seen, a dedicated motor board was used for the motors, or the controller is unspecified. In all the "barely can move" situations, a Romeo was being used for the motor or the controller is unspecified.

Even the detailed video review linked on the product's page is suffering from that issue. In video number #9 DFRobot Arduino Mobile Platform Review - Part 9 - RUG Community Robot Review , where the reviewer mentions: "It's probably because of the way I have it wired up". Is there a "better" way to wire up the 4wd chassis to a Romeo than the one shown in details in those videos that would not have the same motor issue?

While my project doesn't require huge power or anything like that, it at least needs to be able to do a bit more than "be barely able to move"... So I am a bit concerned that buying a romeo + baron would be an headache inducing problem. If anyone had success with the baron (or pirate) with the romeo (no added motor controller), please inform me :)
2014-01-02 20:12:44 Hello Zywack,
I think its problem is because the sketch.
The value of pwm is a little low to drive the motor.
In the video, we can hear some noisy made by the motors. And it runs very slowly
Although he has use the extra power(I don't know whether the battery is over 6 or more), it seems like the PWM value is still too low. I guess that the sketch of the PWM is very low.

I have tried it with a extra power(7.4V full charge) with the romeo PWM sample code.(For only usb power, it runs too slowly :()
it works very well with the keyboard. whatever the turn left and turn right.  :)
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