Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Discussion specific to the intelligent brick, sensors, motors, and more.
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floppi
Posts: 48
Joined: 25 Jul 2012, 22:55

Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Post by floppi »

Hi,

At the beginning I just wanted to add power function motors to my newly bought EV3 set in order to move the arms of the Ev3rstorm.
Then I was disappointed that I can not easily link my NXT and my EV3.

So I have made two atmega328 based board to drive this !

First board to drive 4 powerfunctions motor with speed and direction using one ev3 sensor port ( bonus : 4 analog input ) :
schema-2.pdf
4 power function driver
(16.86 KiB) Downloaded 876 times
then I made a second board based on an atmega328 to drive a RS011MC card (4 DC motor driver ) to drive 3 NXT/EV3 motors :
schema-3.pdf
(14.11 KiB) Downloaded 772 times
One sensor port used on the EV3 to drive two atmega328 with I2C.
The two atmega328 are burned with arduino bootloader so it's easier to manage.
Sketch are not ready but are coming !

I can manage 4 PF motors with speed and 3 NXT/EV3 motors with rotary encoders and speed.

I hope this will help someone else.
HaWe
Posts: 2500
Joined: 04 Nov 2014, 19:00

Re: Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Post by HaWe »

hey,
nice job!
And nice to see that more people than just me are interfacing AVR CPUs to Lego Mindstorms! 8-)

I did something quite similar for the NXT interfacing an Arduino Mega or Due,
adding simultaneously
up to 8 Lego encoder motors (8 for Arduino Mega - just 6 for Arduino Due),
up to 8 analog sensors (including original Lego Mindstorms sensors or even Lego I2C ultrasonic sensors ),
up to 16 digital touch sensors
and optionally even different devices and sensors like e.g., a PC keyboard or a PixyCam to my NXT :)

http://www.mindstormsforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=8302
http://www.mindstormsforum.de/viewtopic ... 700#p66006

Unfortunately I am not able to program the EV3 to do the same work being interfaced by I2C :(
Attachments
intermediate test setup:<br />interfacing an original PC PS/2 keyboard plus 4 analog sensors plus 1 touch sensor by 1 Arduino Mega to 1 NXT brick
intermediate test setup:
interfacing an original PC PS/2 keyboard plus 4 analog sensors plus 1 touch sensor by 1 Arduino Mega to 1 NXT brick
Arduino Due as a multi-I/O muxer to a Lego Mindstorms NXT<br />local on the NXT: 3 encoder motors plus 3 US sensors<br />remote on the Arduino Due muxer: 4 analog Lego sensors, <br />4 analog Sharp IR sensors, <br />6 encoder motors (Mega: 8), <br />a PixyCam, <br />plus (unfortunately not shown): additionally 16 touch sensors <br />plus optionally 1 PC keyboard attached to the Arduino board
Arduino Due as a multi-I/O muxer to a Lego Mindstorms NXT
local on the NXT: 3 encoder motors plus 3 US sensors
remote on the Arduino Due muxer: 4 analog Lego sensors,
4 analog Sharp IR sensors,
6 encoder motors (Mega: 8),
a PixyCam,
plus (unfortunately not shown): additionally 16 touch sensors
plus optionally 1 PC keyboard attached to the Arduino board
floppi
Posts: 48
Joined: 25 Jul 2012, 22:55

Re: Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Post by floppi »

woow, very impressive !

With my Ev3 I do not succeed in driving a PCF8574 ( I2C-8 i/o) but it works with the NXT. I don't know why !!
But with an atmega no problem with both bricks.
HaWe
Posts: 2500
Joined: 04 Nov 2014, 19:00

Re: Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Post by HaWe »

yes, I'm also fine with my PCF8574 for my NXT.

Can it be a 5V vs. 3.3V signal level issue for the EV3 ?
floppi
Posts: 48
Joined: 25 Jul 2012, 22:55

Re: Adding 4 Powerfunctions motors and/or 4 NXT/EV3 motors

Post by floppi »

I retried today with Lejos on my EV3.
( It's very cool to be able to install lejos on a SD without flashing the lego os on the brick !!! )

Reading a PCF8574 works perfectly with same hardware !

Lego original firmware issue ???
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