The Hotel Lima, for Ants: A Build Diary

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LimaHotel
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by LimaHotel »

Image

Like this? Cleaned up my brother's soldering a nats
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LimaHotel
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by LimaHotel »

I got nuthin. The receiver bound properly, but I got no motor spin. I reckon this DasMikro might be fried.

Query: 2x Vex29esc and mix in transmitter. That should work fine, right?
If I roll with that, how do I get power to the receiver? Lemons run at 5v, correct? Does the Vex29esc contain a step-down thingy like the DasMikro? I guess it has to if it supports the 3-pin receiver connector.
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Kyro
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

it sounds like it... do you have a multimeter? could see where the problem lies... test for power entering into the board, then test continuity between each component... no beep means that component is probably the faulty one...
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Kyro
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

yes 2 esc's with mixing will do the same job... just disconnect the red wire (to the rx) from one of them

i can't see anywhere whether it has an internal bec... though i saw just 1 post claiming it has a linear voltage regulator at 4.5v... i did see multiple times that it will happily run off 11.1v and someone had it running off 14.4v but with no follow up regarding life span
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LimaHotel
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by LimaHotel »

Okay, I'm looking at the Vex29s and... They take full lipo power in, signal in (from receiver), and output motor wires. I can't see how I'd power the lemon if I'm using Vex29s...?
... I can just grab a 5v regulator and wire the lemon, through that, from the battery I guess.
Something like this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/107
... nooo... a touch more googling and I doubt it. That said 5v bec's seem to exist, though I'm now rapidly approaching having a LOT of electronics going on in here
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Kyro
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10A-Bustophe ... 1a587c0369
these esc's are small and cheap (not the lightest) but work in 3 of my bots... they have built in bec and require no extra's... i desoldered the switches and bridged the gap with a blob of solder then connected 1 switch between the battery and esc... the tiny switch in the board for braking can be removed with no issues and with it removed, has breaking disabled...

give me a couple of minutes and il get you size and weight
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

weighs in at a little over 7g (i have wires messed about with) measures 23x22x5

Image

this one has had red wire removed (to rx)
power switch removed and bridged
brake switch removed
remaining wires shortened to around 10cm with wires to motor around 4cm...

at a guestimate (adding solder and heatshrink into the mix) 2 wired together would weigh around 15-16g but you could probably shed a gram or 2 shortening the wires further...
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

actually this mess Image weighs in at 13.8g according to my scales and has simmilar mod's as the previous one but no power switch added with only one of the 2 having the positive to rx removed...
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by LimaHotel »

Okay... I'm guessing the big switch is power (and given that I wire a switch into the lipo connector that's obsolete), what /is/ the tiny little switch for? Oh right, braking. Cool. We don't want any of that around here. I also see a 2 pin out - I guess that's the motor wires just with a connector on the end for some reason.
Okay, these look dirt cheap. Found them on other sellers for as low as £3 each! DEFINITELY worth considering.
Last edited by LimaHotel on Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Hotel, constructed of Limas, for Ants: A Build Diary

Post by Kyro »

tiny switch is for braking in rc cars... you won't want this on a bot...

looking at a standard one, wire side up, wires along the bottom edge, from the left the first black wire is battery negative, next is motor negative, then motor positive, then battery positive then next 2 are for the switch and you can bridge these 2 and remove the switch then its neg, pos and signal to the rx...

all i needed to do was wire the battery wires together with a switch, and remove one red wire to tx... then its just a case of shortening wires to where you need them and cutting off the connectors on the motor leads and directly soldering to the motors...
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