Getting started with PCB hardware for beginners

Hardware Autosteer
82
  1. I have hooked up both GPSs (USB and Arduino) and both connect correctly to AOG.
  2. Just to see if GPS worked. I disable it when in Simulation Mode.
  3. Yes, as above “Ran the voltage test as you advise and PD3 shows 0.5v, PD4 gives 5v. Does that sound correct?”

All I am trying to do is get this working on a bench as a test rig and I am trying to get the autosteering to work as a start. As far as I can see it, I need just the Uno and motorcontroller+motor to test this? Get those wired up, fire up AOG, ensure autosteer motor is detected in the Autosteer Com port and I should be able to work the motor using the steering control sliders, shouldn’t I?

83

So you have a high on dir for one direction, but no pwm signal for speed.

Does PD3 change v when you try to steer in agopengps?

84

Old wiki wiring and old coffeetrac.ino works together.
New wiring and autosteerpcbv2.ino works together.
Both demands correct settings in ino setup zone.
Both goes with old and new AGOpengps program.
just to make sure! did you watch this video from Brian? AutoSteer Settings From Default Config - YouTube I believe you can do the first part without connecting gps / leave it in SIM.
Also check his other videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/FarmerBrianTee/videos

85

No, or just by 0.1v if at all.

And thanks for clarifying Larsvest, just watching vids now…

86

Don’t think you are correct… If I read ino correctly MD10c is using ‘Sign-magnitude mode’ and not ‘Locked anti-phase mode’ as per your description of pin outputs.

87

I’m not really sure where things are going wrong for you BUT, if you are committed to getting it working have you built a steer motor or got a hydraulic valve? You WILL need one or the other for a working system.

My roadmap was quite simple.

  1. tablet with the software and ultra cheap GPS receiver. It worked with the expected iffy accuracy.

  2. Cobbled together a stripboard pcb and used the wiki simple wiring diagram to construct it exactly as drawn (with IBT2). Breadboard would be simpler.

3.Fitted my WAS properly as I could see no sense in doing it twice.

4.Altered the arduino sketch to match the pin designations of the wiki diagram (DIFFERENT TO THE NEWER SHIPPED SKETCH DESIGNATIONS).

  1. Bought and set up Ardusimple board. Made a wheel motor bracket.

If you have all these things correctly done, and none of it requires much expertise, it will work.

Personally I don’t see much point in messing about on a bench when the system patently works.

I have since built the recommended PCB but been too busy to finish installing it. Christmas job!

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88

Welcome back for another winter :grinning: 87yj ! The PCB is the way to go. As far as a manufacturer in the US I think most folks are getting their PCBs built outside North America at sites like JLCpcb and allpcb. Quite cheap overall with a good quality product. The PCB set up is the only one that we will concentrate support on instead of the millions of different combinations that people have with point to point wiring. The PCB makes for one standard set of components and voltage supply etc.

Roll has switched to the MMA8542 (much cheaper) instead of DOG2. But you’re still welcome to use the ultra stable DOG2. Heading is still fused with GPS using a Brick or a straight up BNO55. Moving towards dual antenna support for stable heading.

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89

There was a user who had a site and forum set up just before we got this discourse group. When the discourse group came everybody who had signed up on that website moved here. This discourse group seems work well for most and we don’t have any ads. There are some tricks to make the latest developments easier to spot. If you have issues with being able to find things here or have suggestions on what can be done please let an admin know. We don’t want to fragment the community too much by having discussions split over different platforms.

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90

One area that I do agree with 87yj on. There is a glaring lack of a SIMPLE perhaps one page wiki that describes BASIC settings and BASIC setup. Nothing complex. No silly graphics or web design and definately not a video. Simple stuff like what the settings actually do and what the IO pins on the pcb actually do. Basically a list.
I have absolutely no idea why this hasn’t been done by one of the many members here who has explicit knowledge of the software and system. It would save a HUGE amount of time.

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91

Sorry. My bad. I corrected my previous Feedback.
Drive

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Send a pictures of your complete test setup, I think it is the only way now. It should be showing all your wirings and the type of motor you want to run, then from that picture we can help for the right configuration of arduino sketch. Making the motor turn is really simple, I don’t understand how two experts can not figure out how to setup basic autosteer

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93

Alan, I bet most of us have too many ideas and not enough time on our hands to work on them or even worse, finish them :slight_smile: I know I have.

I am asked to do a workshop in January for farmers who want to start with Agopengps. So I will have some basic slides starting from ‘what is RTK’ to visual steering help with Agopengps and the basics of autosteer (steering motor only, no valve). The information on the slides is ‘my take’, short and in Dutch, but I could translate them.

94

Thanks for the detailed response Alan.

The one thing that has kept me going through the past few months of trying to get this working is that you guys all seem to have done so and so it looks like any issue are at my end. But I cannot for the life of me work out what they are.

My setup is extremely bare bones; at its simplest it is merely a laptop, an Arduino, a motor controller and a battery to power this MC. As far as I understand AOG, this is all I need to run a basic auto steer test in simulator mode… or am I misunderstanding this (I did run this question by Brian T on one of his old YouTube vids and have also asked in here and the answers I got were that this should work).

So, just with these components, if I move the steering slider in AOG, the motor should move??

Arduino is connected via USB to laptop. Arduino is connected to 3 pins on the MD10C: DIR is connected to PD4, PWM is connected to PD3 and GND is connected to GND.

The only other wiring is the MD10C draws its power from a 12VDC motorbike battery.

Please note that I haven’t even connected a motor as the MD10C has two LEDs that light up whenever the motor is engaged left or right. So, if the motor is going left, the left LED lights up and vice versa. I’ve tested with and without a motor attached, but it just doesn’t even try to move.

WRT the actual steering, I am using a windscreen wiper motor to drive the steering of my vehicle. This is directly connected to the steering and works fine. If I use the manual control buttons on the MD10C, it steers left and right. If I put together a basic sketch to move this motor left and right, it works fine.

The second developer I have hired to help with this is also drawing a blank. We have got all other components working fine (GPS, magnetometer, WAS). If I fire up AOG with these physically connected and go into Ports, I can attach the GPS com port and it gives valid GPS output. I can attach the WAS as a com port and, when I move it, the AOG outputs the correct values. But if I attach the motor, there is no voltage coming out of PD3.

In fact, even simpler: if I just attach the Arduino to my laptop, compile and upload any sketch, there is no voltage coming out of PD3 regardless of what I try in AOG. The developer I am working with confirms that this is the same at his end too (so it’s not a problem with my hardware).

Basically, no matter what version I test with, nothing comes out of PD3, but all other devices work fine.

Heeeelp!! :wink:

95

Thanks for replying.

Please see my preceding post. With just a laptop connected to an arduino, I cannot get any voltage out of PD3. Ive double checked the sketch and confirmed (as far as my limited knowledge allows) that this is indeed the right PWM pin.

Yeah, I know… I honestly feel totally stupid, but I’m just going round and round in ever decreasing circles which is why I went to a developers’ forum and offered £200 to the first person who could get this working at home, then guide me.

Maybe we are all misunderstanding something in software? Just none of us can see what this is.

So frustrating!!!

96

try connected a wire from steer switch pin to ground

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97

PD3 is only a pin, try to change it to pin 9 for example, both on sketch and on arduino board, and see if it works.

98

Thanks Wilbert.

As I say, I’m not criticising, it would be churlish of me to do so. Basically I’ve been dreaming of creating an autonomous vehicle for some years now, made various attempts, failed and then revisited the idea months later.

One night I saw AOG and just about wet myself!

As a newbie, my experience was:

  1. Saw demo vids, watched all of Brian’s vids including the discussions.
  2. Googled AgOpenGPS and got taken to

2.1. Followed download link to

2.2. Downloaded all files from

(Please note that this page is now much clearer than it was when I last downloaded it a few weeks back).

  1. Built the circuit as per the auto steer schematic, didn’t work. Occam’s Razor, reduced it to its simplest: just Arduino and MD10C, 3 pins connected to PD3, PD4 and GND as per sketch.

  2. Fired up AOG and tested manual steering to see if the motor moved.

It never has.

I realised that I was using old instructions for new versions of AOG, so one recommendation would be to attach the relevant build document to each release noting any changes. I appreciate that this is asking a lot of someone’s time, so when I have this working I will volunteer to write up some stuff and see if the admins like it: I do a fair bit of technical teaching and document writing as part of my job.

99

Give me 10 mins…

100

Took me more than 10 mins as I was being thorough.

Sketch now reads

//////////////////// *********** Motor drive connections **************
//Connect ground only for cytron, Connect Ground and +5v for IBT2

//Dir1 for Cytron Dir, Both L and R enable for IBT2
#define DIR1_RL_ENABLE 4 //PD4

//PWM1 for Cytron PWM, Left PWM for IBT2
#define PWM1_LPWM 9 //PD9

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I’ve attached GND - GND
PWM to PD9
DIR to PD4

Using autosteer below, I am seeing 0.01v on PD9, same as I got on PD3.

To be sure, I checked the 5v and 3.3v output pins and they read 5v and 3.3v respectively so the multimeter is working.

image

101

You need to connect the D6 pin to ground. otherwise, the PWM pins D3 and D9 will not output voltage.
in AutosteerPVCBv2.ino setup…

#define SwitchOrButton 0 // set to 0 to use steer switch as switch
// set to 1 to use steer switch as button
// Button/switch pulls pin low to activate

//--------------------------- Switch Input Pins ------------------------
#define STEERSW_PIN 6 //PD6

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