I am thrilled to report that the following system works and this after only three or four days of working with the new-to-me Synapse gear.
An RF200 and a TI TM4C123GXL LaunchPad are plugged into a custom board. The 400ma LDO regulator on the LaunchPad also powers the RF200.
The LaunchPad is powered via a high efficiency 5volt switching regulator connected to a 12V SLA battery which also powers a pair of brushed drive motors which also have encoder outputs. The whole system when running uses 65ma and with both motors freewheeling uses 150ma. This construct is bolted to and controls a wheeled mobile robot base prototype (a 16" x 16" 1/2" thick polycarbonate plate). The robot base is very rigid and there is no suspension.
An RF200 is plugged into a Synapse-to-FTDI Adapter plugged into a breadboard and powered by batteries (all very standard I'm sure). A joystick and several pots are attached to some of the RF200 analog inputs. This is used to send motion control signals to the robot base.
When I took the system into the garden (lots of paths and circles surfaced with slightly domed pavers (each ~9" x 4") so lots of joints causing lots of vibration (one can hear the bumps via the polycarbonate plate sounding board!)): for its first test, I was able to drive it around for 7 or 8 minutes. What a thrill!. BUt then it suddenly stopped.
Investigation reveals that when the RF200 is unplugged the system powers up normally. When the RF200 is plugged in the system does not power up and the regulator voltage output is very low. I've replaced the RF200 with a new one, downloaded the 'image' and voila, the system works again! (Note: also, there was no RF200 bypass cap installed during the test).
Would someone speak to the mechanical sensitivity of the RF200 (and/or speculate on alternative failure modes) before my next ground test?
An RF200 and a TI TM4C123GXL LaunchPad are plugged into a custom board. The 400ma LDO regulator on the LaunchPad also powers the RF200.
The LaunchPad is powered via a high efficiency 5volt switching regulator connected to a 12V SLA battery which also powers a pair of brushed drive motors which also have encoder outputs. The whole system when running uses 65ma and with both motors freewheeling uses 150ma. This construct is bolted to and controls a wheeled mobile robot base prototype (a 16" x 16" 1/2" thick polycarbonate plate). The robot base is very rigid and there is no suspension.
An RF200 is plugged into a Synapse-to-FTDI Adapter plugged into a breadboard and powered by batteries (all very standard I'm sure). A joystick and several pots are attached to some of the RF200 analog inputs. This is used to send motion control signals to the robot base.
When I took the system into the garden (lots of paths and circles surfaced with slightly domed pavers (each ~9" x 4") so lots of joints causing lots of vibration (one can hear the bumps via the polycarbonate plate sounding board!)): for its first test, I was able to drive it around for 7 or 8 minutes. What a thrill!. BUt then it suddenly stopped.
Investigation reveals that when the RF200 is unplugged the system powers up normally. When the RF200 is plugged in the system does not power up and the regulator voltage output is very low. I've replaced the RF200 with a new one, downloaded the 'image' and voila, the system works again! (Note: also, there was no RF200 bypass cap installed during the test).
Would someone speak to the mechanical sensitivity of the RF200 (and/or speculate on alternative failure modes) before my next ground test?
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