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[R-eng]

Thanos, Lotada ect: I've noticed some posts about feedback potentiometers...If your sim moves more than +/- 30 degrees then your in for one hell of a ride...

No problem! I use 240' pots with the onboard 10k adjuster set so it reads 1023 at 90' (or anything you wish) and it worked out perfectly (thank you Thanos!)

Better you should worry not to use cermet pots because they will have short lifespans. Expensive (unfortunately) conductive plastic is the choice.

Regards, R-eng

[lotada]

Hi to all i have problems with my lcd backlight.. it lights but after few minutes it was lost.. i think its burned.. but idont know why you connect the + wire from lcd connector on second pin .. because my lcd have + first pin ..? can anybody help? i send the scheme of my lcd panel also i have some problems with atmel when i watn in ponyprog open fuses? i have no fuses to select like tornic have on video.. i have only lot of chekboxes and thatsall.?

[R-eng]

@lotada

I looked at the ATM1602B Chinese LCD and the pinouts are slightly different. The backlight A(+) and K(-) are in different location on your LCD. You can make this work, if you have not damaged it beyond repair, but you have to be creative.

Look at the pictures I post here. We have Thanos' correct one, like you probably etched. The other picture of your LCD shows the pinouts as defined by the .pdf datasheet you supplied. This is the topmost image of the three. The middle shows it from the front view. The lowest image is what it would look like if you physically placed the LCD module over the etched side of the Thanos board. But you have to shift it over 2-pins so that the pins 1..14 line up. Then you will need to hard wire the pins (+,-) as I diagrammed for you here. Maybe not so pretty, but it will be fine if not damaged already...try it, you have nothing to lose.

Once you understand this, you can then mirror the board under the LCD so everything lines up correctly. You would then need to rotate 180' the direction of the Molex connector so those pins would match.

Or, you can redesign and etch the board to suit the ATM1602B Chinese LCD.

Regards, R-eng

[egoexpress]

but you have to be creative.

I've connected 5V to these pads to power the backlight. Depending the specs of your backlight, a pre-resistor will be neccessary.

Regards
Christian

[R-eng]

I've connected 5V to these pads to power the backlight. Depending the specs of your backlight, a pre-resistor will be neccessary.

The pre-resistor still functions in my solution. Just the value may need to be changed.

[R-eng]

@Thanos, the Mosfet appears to be working.

Another step realized; My AVR-DSMhb with a single motor runs very nicely at 24Mhz. I also tested the comm/control with Force-Profiler and that is functioning. Hopefully tonight will see rFactor take the control with the x-sim plugin active...we'll see.

This project is moving along very smoothly with only very small issues encountered so far...all solved. Here is the video of the initial motor test.



R-eng

[egoexpress]

Great to see your progress!

Hopefully tonight will see rFactor take the control with the x-sim plugin active

Just to save you some time of frustration. Dont forget, that you have to copy a rFactor plugin .dll out of the X-Sim Folder into the rFactor directory. As well there is an ingame button in rFactor that "enable(s)/disable(s) the hardware plugins". It has to be activated!
You can find it in the keymap/config in R-Factor.

Regards
Christian

[R-eng]

Thanks egoexpress,

I already did what you mentioned, and just finished testing a single, unloaded motor with the AVR-DSMhb. It took a while to figure out which effects would actually deliver what I needed for lat-g and long-g, but it appears I've found them.

Regards, R-eng

[tronicgr]

Another alternative way of making the PCB's is to using the ExpressPCB etching service:
http://www.expresspcb.com/

On my first layouts of AMC I used their software to design the layouts but I didn't used their on-line service. Instead I printed the layouts on paper (PDF). But as R-eng reports, the quality of their boards are great, so if you can affort the extra money for ordering from them, you will be happy with the results. And they use double-sided PCB's too!!!

I would give my old expresspcb layout plans but instead I prefer to give you the ones that R-eng made, and used to actually order the boards. They have a few modifications most of them to take advantage of the double layer PCB boards!!! Also there is a small size increase of the fan used on DSMhb to 92mm. I have run a quick check on them and they look correct. Thus we have seen his video with these boards made and working fine!

Here is the expresspcb files which include the board you see in the picture, and another one which would be a basic AVR-DSMhb system.

AMC_DSMhb_ExpressPCB_R_eng.zip

(192.31 KiB) Downloaded 439 times

And here is a short description from R-eng about the ordering he made to ExpressPCB service:

"I had the large board done per their "standard board" method because it was the most cost effective to produce. Their "mini board" method only supports ~3.5" x 5" size (x3), and only 1 design. That was not feasible.

They do allow you to cluster multiple designs into 1 board, and the user then needs to cut it into pieces, like I did. I just outlined the individual boards with a rectangular thin trace as a cutting guide, as you will see. There is no minimum board count, one is ok. But it is more costly because of the setup fee, which if it could be spread over more boards, really reduces the individual price.

I ordered 2 boards (one for a friend) and it was nearly $200 USD. Not the cheapest, but I think the quality is very high and I am pleased with the results and turnaround. And the boards are dual sided as standard...no jumper wires to solder. It made for a very clean programming jumper board which you can see in my pictures.

I increased the cooling fan mounting holes to a 92mm unit, completely centered over the Mosfets."

Regards, Thanos


BTW, I repaired my Sprint-layouts of AMC1.5 and Parallel_Lcd boards after R-eng suggestions... post7978.html#p7978 & post8644.html#p8644

[tronicgr]

Today morning I decided to try to interface a FT232R evaluation board I purchased to my AMC:

It worked perfectly with one try only!! As you can see in the photos I connected only the TX pin from the FT232R and RX pin from AMC. But you can connect RX on FT232R as well to have the AMC send back data (hyperterminal config...). And of course I tied together both boards grounds.

For the connection I bypassed the use of max232 (both on AMC and FT232 eval board) as the signals are simple TTL logical level.

The FT232R is configured as com port and since it took com5 on device manager, I had to use the "\\.\com5" statement on the USO to configure the port. Also I had to choose a "serial printer" option on the properties of the COM port that FT232R created for compatibility reasons!

Perhaps in future versions of my AMC I will discard the use of max232 circuit entirely and use the sparkfun FT232R breakout box so it will be USB connection! The options will be to use it either as virtual com port (VCP) or with direct access with D2XX from application plugin!

Regards, Thanos