uc32 with Motor shield

[Marcus]

So I purchased a motor shield with the uc32. I wanted to control a couple of motors in order to drive my robot. Is there a library I have to include in my sketch. I know I can use the arduino IDE to control the uc32 with the motor shield. Also is there a certain way to declare the motors and is there a jumper I am supposed to remove in order to have the external power power the motors? Can anyone help please? Thank you.

 

[jpeyron]

Hi @Marcus,

Here is the resource page for the chipKIT motor shield. Under downloads there is a library that can be added to be used in the Arduino IDE. Here a reference manual. Here is a detailed thread that has some code for the motor shield as well as pseudocode. 

cheers,

Jon

[Marcus]

Thank you for the information. I was not precisely looking for PID control. I saw the picture and the person using this motor is also using a feedback system. What I was more so wondering is if the uC32 with the motorshield works more like the arduino with the adafruit motor shield. For example, the header must read

#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_MotorShield.h>
#include "utility/Adafruit_MS_PWMServoDriver.h"
Adafruit_MotorShield AFMS = Adafruit_MotorShield();
Adafruit_DCMotor *rightMotor = AFMS.getMotor(1);
Adafruit_DCMotor *leftMotor = AFMS.getMotor(2);
 

To declare the motors. Then in the void setup() you must add in AFMS.begin();

 

Then in the main body which is the void loop I would have something like this to control the left motor. First I set the motor speed then I call it to move forward for about 2 seconds. Does the chipkit uC32 with the motor shield have something similar. I want to be able to control each individual motor speed due to different scenarios I may encounter. Thank you.

   leftMotor->setSpeed(100);   
   leftMotor->run(FORWARD);
   delay(2000); 

 

Also, I am trying to connect the motors directly to the motor pins J5 and J7. Not through J6 and J3. These are just straight DC motors with no feedback.

[jpeyron]

Hi @Marcus,

Looking into our library, it only provides functionality for the led's and buttons. We do not have an library/demo made for the motor shield that uses motor, servo or stepper's. I have found more code that would help with using a PID with J3 and J6(attached below) but not with using j5 and j7. I would suggest to start with the pins and steps described in section 2 motor controller of the reference manual above along with the correct setting on jp1 and jp2. 

cheers,

Jon

pidcontrol.pde