RC "Tank" programing

[Greenbell7]

• I got this robot chase and I wanted to make a program for this that would allow for the independent control of each tread. Would I need to buy a separate board in order to do this? If so, which ones would you recommend? If not, what pins on the Raspberry Pi would you recommend I use?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPJFY3BS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

[Thomas53]

No, you just need a gearbox that lets you control each tread separately. Just go to a good hobby shop, especially one that sells a lot of RC parts and inquire ther, as there are a few different ones available. 

[matt0725]

42 minutes ago, Thomas53 said:

No, you just need a gearbox that lets you control each tread separately. Just go to a good hobby shop, especially one that sells a lot of RC parts and inquire ther, as there are a few different ones available. 

i would just use two motors and speed controllers to do this. Not sure if that's what you meant by gearbox or not lol

 

as for control on the Pi, ESC (electronic speed controllers) work on a variety of inputs, but using PWM is probably one of the easiest ways to control them. The ESc's take power direct from the battery, and signal from the Pi

[Thomas53]

What the gearbox does is to power each tread separately which allows you to control turning easier, and allows you to make extremely sharp turns by being able to run each tread not only at separately and even allow for one to either not run or run in the opposite direction in order to make sharper turns or operate at different speed when running on non-even surfaces in order to run in a straighter line.

 

You won't necessarily need to use two motors, as the gearbox allows you to use one motor to control both treads and you'll also only to need one speed controller as a dual stick controller eliminates the the need. But two motors will make things a lot easier.

[Greenbell7]

It came with two motors in it already. I’d kind of like to use those. 

[matt0725]

5 minutes ago, Greenbell7 said:

It came with two motors in it already. I’d kind of like to use those. 

2 motors and 2 ESC's should work fine using a Pi. Not sure what youre using for control, but if it's a radio, they often allow for 'mixing' so all movement could be controlled on one stick, allowing for forward/back and turns on one stick if desired.

[Kilrah]

It seems to already come with a driver board?

They show it controlled via i2c so you'd use an i2c port of whatever controller you want, then write software to send it the right commands.

Seems there may be other options to drive it too like serial, need to read the driver's documentation. 

 

[Greenbell7]

3 hours ago, Kilrah said:

It seems to already come with a driver board?

They show it controlled via i2c so you'd use an i2c port of whatever controller you want, then write software to send it the right commands.

Seems there may be other options to drive it too like serial, need to read the driver's documentation. 

 

Here is the documentation they included in Google Drive if it helps. 

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1dkflQOhRtjbGFmN6Wwg76pJ-LJk0xecV?usp=sharing 

[Greenbell7]

I think I found something that might work, but what do you think?

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CKTD7QJB/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=ADHH624DX2Q66&psc=1

[Kilrah]

Any actual question? Seems you have all you need already. 

[Greenbell7]

22 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Any actual question? Seems you have all you need already. 

I think I’m good for now.