Electric Vehicle C

[nickWatt60]

So this year we have decided to step it up a notch and use an arduino for our electric vehicle, does anyone have any insight on using an arduino?

Ask specific questions. I'm sure we will be able to answer them

What all would you use it for? could you use it to count the wheel rotation? could you use it to make the vehicle turn by making one wheel rotate faster for a certain amount of time? and has anyone used/using one and how successful was/is it?

[windu34]

So this year we have decided to step it up a notch and use an arduino for our electric vehicle, does anyone have any insight on using an arduino?

Ask specific questions. I'm sure we will be able to answer them

What all would you use it for? could you use it to count the wheel rotation? could you use it to make the vehicle turn by making one wheel rotate faster for a certain amount of time? and has anyone used/using one and how successful was/is it?

Yes;Yes;Very

[nickWatt60]

Last year we used the wing nut axel thing and got 3rd in MO. How simple was it to program the arduino, and are there any videos you recommend me watching? We've got an "Arduino for Dummies" book. And could you go into a little more specifics on how you applied it? And just out of curiosity, how far did you go with it?

[Bazinga+]

Last year we used the wing nut axel thing and got 3rd in MO. How simple was it to program the arduino, and are there any videos you recommend me watching? We've got an "Arduino for Dummies" book. And could you go into a little more specifics on how you applied it? And just out of curiosity, how far did you go with it?

Before last year I had very minimal microcontroller and programming experience and was able to figure everything out fairly easily (I would really advise against Arduino for Dummies, I think just manipulating sample code that is included and some that is online is a much better option for learning arduino and achieving results, at least for me).
For starters I would recommend just getting an arduino and a motor shield and hooking that up to a decently powerful dc motor (I recommend Traxxas), and use the provided sample code to run it. You can just have it on a delay for now, where it speeds up, stays at the top speed for a while, then slows down. This way you can change the delay and with that change the distance.
The delay method is not very accurate (hard to get better than 5cm accuracy with my experience) so once you get the jist of it you can get a rotary encoder and basically have the car brake when the encoder reaches a certain number of ticks.
Also I would advise against electronically controlled steering through your arduino since I believe there are much better and simpler solutions.
Hope this helps.

[nickWatt60]

Thank you. This held a lot. And I noticed there are a lot of types of motor shields out there, is there one that you recommend?

[nickWatt60]

Thank you. This held a lot. And I noticed there are a lot of types of motor shields out there, is there one that you recommend?

*helped

[Bazinga+]

Thank you. This held a lot. And I noticed there are a lot of types of motor shields out there, is there one that you recommend?

This one worked well for me: http://www.robotshop.com/en/10a-dc-moto ... AllF8P8HAQ

[nickWatt60]

Thank you. This held a lot. And I noticed there are a lot of types of motor shields out there, is there one that you recommend?

This one worked well for me: http://www.robotshop.com/en/10a-dc-moto ... AllF8P8HAQ

Thanks

[VansBuilders]

I have questions on how to control motor speed gradually. I found few tutorials that helped how to display the RPM values using encoders.
I got that. Once i have those, how can i adjust the speed - say go at full speed for 80% and slow down gradually.
I see videos where they use a potentiometer and manually adjust.
That is not an option here. is there any hardware module that would help do this or should it be done fully through code.
Any pointers would be very appreciated. I am going crazy browsing through youtube videos and tutorials.
Please help.

[SOcoach00]

New user to this forum. Working to get ready to run an event at an invitational.

Can anyone provide info on how to economically buy or construct a photo-gate system (including related software that would work with a laptop or tablet) suitable for use with this event? The ones I see online are close to $200 with tax and shipping and that's not in the budget especially since I'll need 2 of them in order to run 2 simultaneous tracks.

Posted this in Hovercraft too, but thought maybe I'd get a better response over here.

Thanks for any help.