MPE – 24M Motor Grader Build

[footprint]

Hi Jens,
Yes i do like your joystick mod its very cool and im thinking of doing something similar but using the UNO and sending it all over WiFi, i've been looking from some good cheap joysticks (2nd hand) but with little luck so far.
The ITX board would provide 2 things; USB so you can use one (or 2) of the 24ch servo controllers and an Arduino for just the digital outputs, lights, sensors - tie these into a user interface and you have unlimited mixing & control options, eg pump, lights and indicators.
And second easy WiFi, the Xbee mods are pretty good and coming down in price but 802n cards with pigtails will a give better range and antenna options.
So while you could use a Arduino Mega, (14pwm i/o) and an xbee, i would be more inclined to over complicate it for the additional features. At 30" in size i would guess there should be space to hide it all the PICO-ITX is 7x10cm, however as stated power consumption would be considerably higher.
Edit: you could also use 2 xbee mods and a servo controller that uses 232 via one xbee but im kind of looking at it like using the ITX as a PLC/SCADA which also means using a laptop as the controller.

[JensR]

Hi Footprint!

Hm...
But we do not need xbee range. Beyond 10m, it gets really hard to grade, beyond 30m, it gets really hard to even steer. (1m is roughly one yard.)

Here's what I currently use and plan on building on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cm3TxekJO4
(The description has more info.)

This is also fully programmable, but uses very little power in a compact form factor.

So you would have the ITX on the grader and connect the USB servo-controllers to the ITX? And then you add an Arduino to control the lights?
Why not use the Arduino to do everything?
IMO, that's a lot of stuff to put into what will be a crowded machine.

And a Laptop as transmitter? On many driving courses, you might have to walk behind the machine. And how do you connect all the controls to the laptop? USB joysticks? But will that work? Look at the Caterpillar M-Series layout - you have to modify the sticks. How do you get those mods into the USB format without further complications? I guess there must be potentiometer-to-USB converters. But why not cut out the middleman and go Arduino directly on either end?
And even if you go with the previous H-series layout, you'd have loads of 2-axis joysticks arranged around a laptop, which you would be schlepping around the course.

To be fair, the Laptop would probably be a very nice and even realistic display. And you could reprogram your radio in the field - but all at a cost

Building a controller/radio is a project by itself and there are so many different options. It's always good to hear from other people's approaches.

Cheers
Jens

[grumpygrady]

for joy sticks check your local coin operated games guy
should have some old games that don't work and have the joy sticks
if you can't find them stop at your local bar/pub and ask who owns there machines and talk to them

Originally Posted by footprint

Hi Jens,
Yes i do like your joystick mod its very cool and i'm thinking of doing something similar but using the UNO and sending it all over WiFi, i've been looking from some good cheap joysticks (2nd hand) but with little luck so far.
The ITX board would provide 2 things; USB so you can use one (or 2) of the 24ch servo controllers and an Arduino for just the digital outputs, lights, sensors - tie these into a user interface and you have unlimited mixing & control options, eg pump, lights and indicators.
And second easy WiFi, the Xbee mods are pretty good and coming down in price but 802n cards with pigtails will a give better range and antenna options.
So while you could use a Arduino Mega, (14pwm i/o) and an xbee, i would be more inclined to over complicate it for the additional features. At 30" in size i would guess there should be space to hide it all the PICO-ITX is 7x10cm, however as stated power consumption would be considerably higher.
Edit: you could also use 2 xbee mods and a servo controller that uses 232 via one xbee but i'm kind of looking at it like using the ITX as a PLC/SCADA which also means using a laptop as the controller.

[JensR]

Originally Posted by grumpygrady

for joy sticks check your local coin operated games guy
should have some old games that don't work and have the joy sticks
if you can't find them stop at your local bar/pub and ask who owns there machines and talk to them

These are available on ebay: arcade joystick*

Some issues I can see:
Not cheap if you need several
rather heavy (but admittedly good quality and sturdiness)
only two axes per joystick, so copying Caterpillar's sweet M-series control is not easily possible

Cheers
Jens

[tootall]

Great build !!!!! for joysticks you could use some of these 4 axis ones from servo city. http://www.servocity.com/html/4_function_joystick.html

[JensR]

Originally Posted by tootall

Great build !!!!! for joysticks you could use some of these 4 axis ones from servo city. http://www.servocity.com/html/4_function_joystick.html

Not bad, these look really sturdy. The fourth function is only on-off, though - but I guess one could modify those sticks - still cheaper than buying a full-scale industrial joysticks and more sturdy than the converted gaming joysticks I use.