Connect 3 Roboclaws in serie

Questions about using encoders with the Roboclaw product line
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GioCa
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2017 2:59 am
Connect 3 Roboclaws in serie

Post by GioCa »

Hi Guys

i have some problems connecting my roboclaws.

First i have 3 roboclaws .... i connected all 3 roboclaws to my raspberry pi and drive the motors ... everything works fine ... the only problem was that i think it was to much for the raspberry pi because it starts lagging... So i thought maybe it is better when i connect the roboclaws in serie and connect only one roboclaw to the raspberry

So what i have done now is i connected 1 Roboclaw per usb to my computer and the second roboclaw over jumper with the first roboclaw ... i connected all pins from S1 with all Pins of S1 of the second roboclaw...
Then i connected all S3 pins of the second roboclaw with all S3 Pins from the third roboclaw..
Is that right ? --- in ION Studio i only see one roboclaw when i attach it to my computer


Can sb please help me ?
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Basicmicro Support
Posts: 1594
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:45 pm
Re: Connect 3 Roboclaws in serie

Post by Basicmicro Support »

Your wiring is incorrect. There are also several settings that much be set in each roboclaw before you can wire them up correctly.

1. The USB connected Roboclaw must have the USB to TTL Relay mode enabled(set in General Settings of Ion Studio).
2. All Roboclaws need to have the same baudrate set for packet serial
3. All Roboclaws need to have DIFFERENT packet serial addresses set.
4. The two TTL Roboclaws must have Multi-Unit mode enabled.
5. The USB Roboclaw S2 pin connects to the other two TTL Roboclaws S1 pins. The USB Roboclaw S1 pin connects to the two TTL Roboclaws S2 pins. The USB Roboclaw S1 pin will need a resistor(1k to 10k in value) pull-up to 5v connected to it.

Note this is one of the most complicated setups your can use. It is easy to make a mistake which will prevent things from functioning correctly. If you have setup each unit correctly(using IonStudio and the USB connection) and then wired them all together correctly, they will all show up in Ion Studio when you connect the USB Roboclaw to the PC. Once that is confirmed working you can connect to the RPi USB instead. To talk to the Roboclaws you have to use the single USB port in Linux and use the correct packet serial address for each individual Roboclaw.

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