From: Dave H. <dhy...@gm...> - 2007-05-07 21:33:27
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HI Karthik, > It's powered off its own battery pack (4xAA rechargeable for a total of 4.8 > volts). It may be crashing because of EMF transmitted through the air from the motor. Do you have caps across the motor leads? I recommend putting 3 0.1uF (or 0.01uF) caps on your motor. One between the leads, and one between each lead and the metal case on the motor. Putting a metal shield between the gumstix and the motor and grounding the shield can also help to reduce transmitted EMF. I had a similar problem on a robot I built where the processor board was directly over the motors. I had even added opto-isolators and used separate batteries, but the EMF transmitted from the motors was enough to disrupt the CPU. Adding the metal shield helped a bit, but the thing that helped the most was installing the caps. Also, the red and black wires from the battery should be twisted around each other if there is any length to do so. The same goes for the wires to any motors. Twisting the wires reduces the loop inductance, which in turn reduces transmitted noise. See the following links for some good tips on wiring and what not. The 4QD guys are big in the battle bot stuff, but the same techniques apply equally well to all motorized devices. http://www.4qd.co.uk/serv/appnotes/machinewire.html http://www.4qd.co.uk/serv/appnotes/RCWiring.html -- Dave Hylands Vancouver, BC, Canada http://www.DaveHylands.com/ |