boombaby31

[boombaby31]

With our experience, the IG42 motors probably do not have enough power unless it is a very lightweight mower. That’s why we use IG52 motors in our 4WD chassis. It takes a lot of torque to skid steer the wheels with that much weight in grass. The 2WD design is a lot easier because it doesn’t have to skid steer.

You can use the wheelchair motors and chain couple them like we do in our 4WD WC DB robot (http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx/4wd-all-terrain-robot-platform-wc-db/2093/) but you’ll need to build a frame to mount the motors on and to mount two bearings per wheel. You’ll need wheels that mount to shafts that will spin in the the bearings. Then you’ll need to chain couple the motors to one of the shafts and couple the shafts together so that the motor drives both wheels. We have all the shafts, chain, sprockets if you elect to go this route.

[boombaby31]

I’d recommend reading some of the support pages before getting started, the How to Build a Robot page in particular:

http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/custom.aspx/how-to-build-a-robot/70/#mc

Other support pages can be found here:

http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/custom.aspx/support/1/

The Sabertooth 2×32 needs an input to tell the motors to drive. This input is usually from a microcontroller or RC receiver. Autonomous control is very involved and requires using sensors and a lot of programming. It can be done, but you’ll need a lot more than just a motor controller. We sell some sensors and controllers but you’ll be on your own for the most part.

As for speed, you’ll probably want to stick to similar wheel size and RPM motors as what we have. Making the wheels bigger will make to robot faster but it also makes the motors work harder, and eventually they will burn up if you work them too hard. Changing the gear reduction or using different RPM motors to make it faster will effectively do the same thing. Unless you plan on using bigger motors, I would stick to the specs that we have in our robot.

[boombaby31]

Try taking the capacitors out. You shouldn’t need them.

[boombaby31]

It sounds like the set screw in the shaft collar may have come loose from the motor shaft. Loosen the set screw on the shaft collar and slide it toward the wheel, exposing the hole in the shaft. Now line up the hole with the flat spot on the motor and replace the shaft collar so that when you tighten the set screw, it goes through the hole in the shaft and tightens down on the flat spot. Use a medium-strength thread locking solution on this screw as well.

This should solve your problem. Let me know if it doesn’t or if you have any more questions.

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