I have been attempting to get ShakeIt running after purchasing the Uno & Adafruit Motor Sheild PCBs. In my first attempt to get up and running, I connected my 12v 3A wall AC/DC wall adapter into the power connector of the Uno. I got the system to work, but the 3.3v failed a couple of minutes while adjusting the settings & testing the motors. After getting a new Uno board, I connected the power to the headers on the motor shield and removed the jumper. But since having put everything back together, I can't get the system to work after uploading the sketch to the Uno. As far as I can tell, the new Uno card, motor shield, and the rumble motors do not have issues, but I cannot get any of the three motors to respond when I test them in the system.
Any help or insights that anyone can provide would be most appreciated.
Thank you!
Hi ! If you are using the motor shield V2 (not the deprecated V1 aka "dk shield") i've seen some defective boards. The best way would be to test with a "basic sketch" so you can check your board out of simhub : You have a complete example here for instance https://www.aranacorp.com/en/control-several-motors-with-motor-shield-v2-and-arduino/ (see Code for driving DC motors)
@admin5435 I will try the code you mentioned. The weird thing is that the same motor shield worked once, however I understand it could have been damaged when the 3.3v regulator blew. I will try the code you mentioned to see whether this moves the motors.
Could I also have a power supply issue? On the Adafruit website, I have seen the recommendation to use a regulated power supply. After testing the voltage output of the 12v 3a supply I purchased it looks to have an unregulated output. Based on your experience, should I purchase a regulated output wall adapter?
I know the motors are good because they spin when the leads are touched to a 9v battery. Is there a reliable test for the function of the Uno, motor shield, or my unregulated adapter under load?
Basically to test the uno and motor shield the example sketch I linked will do the trick, to test the power supply a simple voltmeter will do the trick, if you can see it keeping around 12v during operation it means it works fine.
I used many power sources personally without taking much care about regulated characteristic but if you want to use the barrel plug of the Arduino it's better to have one stable enough and not spiking some bad voltages.Unregulated power supply is mostly to be evaluated at case by case.
@admin5435 Sounds good. I'll give that a shot. I assume it's pretty safe to say that if I cannot get the motors to turn with that code, the shield needs to be replaced, correct? I'll let you know what happens.
Thank you very much for your help, thus far!
I attempted to upload the included DCMotorTest sketch and nothing happened. I assume that means the motor shield is most likely bad and needs to be replaced, correct?
It looks like indeed 🙁
@admin5435 I was in contact with Adafruit and they are sending out a new PCB. I will let you know what happens when i get & install the new motor sheild.
Thank you for your help!
@admin5435, I wanted to provide an update after getting a replacement shield from Adafruit. That ended up doing the trick & I have successfully been using Shake It feature for my pedals for the last few days. After a little tuning, I find the rumble motor on each pedal to be very helpful for improving my lap time.
Since I was a real-world race driver before becoming a sim racer, this provides me a surprising amount of tactile feedback, which I would otherwise be missing. I also like that the simulated effects go beyond brake lock, which was the only feedback provided by Fanatec's rumble system.
In short this is a wonderful app and has become a big part of increasing my sim racing enjoyment and performance. Wonderful work on the program and thank you for your help with solving this issue.
Chris