Feature Suggestions

I have been using the Roboteq motor controllers for about a year now in 3 different autonomous vehicles. I am very happy with it's performance, but here are some suggestions to make it work better for me ;)

-Complete Independent motor control (current limiting and input voltage) for each channel. I have a propulsion motor that runs at a much higher current and voltage than my steering motor.

-Single control box for multiple channels. I am currently working on project that will require 3-5 channels to control motors. The control could easily be handled over a single serial port, but now I will have to add more serial ports and change the code to manage several motor controllers. It would be cool if Roboteq made an expandable MC that you buy extra channels for.

Thanks for the suggestions. I invite all participants to send their wish list too - Christmass is in a couple of days after all :)

Splitting the voltage for each output is no longer possible. In the first version of the design, each of the two power cables could be connected to a different supply. However we found it that it was best to have a single voltage with the largest internal capacitor possible shared by the two channel.

However, we've seen this request before and have been thinking of allowing each ouput to be configurable to swing from 0V to VBatt or from 0V to VBatt/2. This would be done by making the PWM be 100% at max in one case, and 50% at max in the other. This is a relatively easy change.

The separate Amps limit is a bit more complicated because it requires additional parameter storage bits that are now scarce. But we'll look into it when we implement the first change.

The multiple controller on a single RS232 port is another feature which we plan to support. The way that it will work is by daisy chaining the RS232 of two (hopefully 3) controllers. Data will leave the PC, go to RxData of controller 1. TxData of controller 1 will go to RxData of controller 2. TxData of controller 2 will go the PC. Since the controller echoes whatever it sees on the Rx port, the second controller will see the data sent from the PC. The trick is to have each controller recognize the data that is sent for itself and ignore all other.

Another way of controlling multiple controllers via a single port, is to use the new AX3500 (see preliminary info on web site) in rs232 mode and take the RC outputs to drive additional controllers configured in RC mode.