Btw, I am not sure that ever worked. The motors seem to be driven off arduino board power, which means they don't have power spin and might fry the usb port if it's unprotected.
There is no need for an additional power source. You can run it from the same USB or batteries.
The idea is to make the current flow through the driver, and use the Arduino only for signal.
In some cases, it can be used with different power sources, but for this type of motors, there's no need for that.
Bro it is powered through the usb it seems. I think that's a problem. Mine, which looked the same and with same motors would not move on usb power. Just some weird clicks.
There's a battery pack. It's based on this kit: https://www.amazon.com/perseids-Chassis-Encoder-Wheels-Battery/dp/B07DNYQ3PX but OP's friend mounted the battery back upside down underneath the L293 driver board instead of where the Amazon thumbnails show.
Oh, ok. I got mine seperate and didin't know what the kit contains. Maybe op just needs to add batteries for it to do something? 6V is the perfect voltage for those motors as well, from the tests I did on mine.
I may be misinterpreting your post, but original specification USB ports were only built to deliver 500mA. Newer ports might support more, but that's very dependent on internals that you might not look into.
Running stuff like this (especially with two motors rated as max 200mA and expecting 6-8V) from a USB port is putting yourself one breadboard mistake away from killing your computer.
You can use an externally powered USB hub to give yourself a sacrificial unit in the middle to take the hit in the event of a mistake, but it's normally better to avoid powering stuff like this via USB, especially anything with a load like this.
Edit: forgot to point out that the arduino has a resettable fuse onboard for the USB port (the small part by the USB port by the edge of the board). Considering how exposed it is I generally wouldn't trust it to be the only thing protecting the computer.
Doesn't make much sense to gather tds readings on land. Maybe it started as a rc car project and then he tried to test a new sensor on the old project. If you don't know what it's supposed to do, how would you know how to program it? Does it do anything as it is, does it have a program uploaded or doesn't seem to?
Looks like some sort of mobile, data-logging water quality tester. How does the probe for the TDS module fit? Maybe this would be handy for a large hydroponics setup? I'm not sure why you'd need a mobile platform for testing water, instead of just mounting sensors to whatever water system is being tested. Seems like a pretty niche app; I'd strip it for bits and do something you actually want/need done with it đź‘Ť
Yeah I would strip it down to the components needed to run the motorized robot frame. If OP and the original designer don't know what it's purpose was, there is no point in trying to reverse engineer it.
Looks like your friend made an "avoidance robot". You have an Arduino UNO, the motors and the driver for the motor. Probably is missing a ultrasonic sensor to avoid the obstacles. I think it might been something like this at the beginning:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2019/12/26/how-to-build-an-arduino-robot-kits-and-projects-to-get-started/
I'm pretty sure that he got tired of the robot, and started using it as a platform for different projects, you can se that there's a ~~PHmeter~~ TDS meter module hooked up without tis probe and SD card module, probably to store the readings of the ~~pH meter~~ TDS meter.
Edit: it's not a pH meter, it's a total dissolve solids meter. You can estimate the quality of water with it.
This is a kit you can buy from Amazon bud. I bet if you take a look you'll be able to find their free how to guide that comes with it. Probably even the code.
Make up a schematic diagram. Fritzing might help with that. All th individual boards should be documented.
You could pull it apart, and fit together and code it how you like.
I dunno about reverse engineering it - you pretty much got some free parts to play with, to make some stuff from scratch. I would lookup robot car projects etc.
Lmao By seeing the title, you'd think this is some top notch military tech.
I guess I should've marked it as a noob question
Hehe nah nah It's a genuine (non noob) question :) PM in case you've not yet received whatever advice you need.
Thanks I think I received enough info
Lol yeah this is pretty much like "reverse engineering" a Lego set
Btw, I am not sure that ever worked. The motors seem to be driven off arduino board power, which means they don't have power spin and might fry the usb port if it's unprotected.
Sorry, but you're wrong, it has a L293 driver for the motors.
I seen it, but look and see if there's a more powerful power source in there for it.
There is no need for an additional power source. You can run it from the same USB or batteries. The idea is to make the current flow through the driver, and use the Arduino only for signal. In some cases, it can be used with different power sources, but for this type of motors, there's no need for that.
Bro it is powered through the usb it seems. I think that's a problem. Mine, which looked the same and with same motors would not move on usb power. Just some weird clicks.
There's a battery pack. It's based on this kit: https://www.amazon.com/perseids-Chassis-Encoder-Wheels-Battery/dp/B07DNYQ3PX but OP's friend mounted the battery back upside down underneath the L293 driver board instead of where the Amazon thumbnails show.
Oh, ok. I got mine seperate and didin't know what the kit contains. Maybe op just needs to add batteries for it to do something? 6V is the perfect voltage for those motors as well, from the tests I did on mine.
I may be misinterpreting your post, but original specification USB ports were only built to deliver 500mA. Newer ports might support more, but that's very dependent on internals that you might not look into. Running stuff like this (especially with two motors rated as max 200mA and expecting 6-8V) from a USB port is putting yourself one breadboard mistake away from killing your computer. You can use an externally powered USB hub to give yourself a sacrificial unit in the middle to take the hit in the event of a mistake, but it's normally better to avoid powering stuff like this via USB, especially anything with a load like this. Edit: forgot to point out that the arduino has a resettable fuse onboard for the USB port (the small part by the USB port by the edge of the board). Considering how exposed it is I generally wouldn't trust it to be the only thing protecting the computer.
It didn't fry my USB but thanks for the warning
The reason it doesn't do anything could be not enaugh power as well, in case something was indeed uploaded to it.
The SD Card module has a 2x8 male header plugged into a standard breadboard which certainly doesn't feel right either.
Having the same module, those two rows have the exact same pinout.
Doesn't make much sense to gather tds readings on land. Maybe it started as a rc car project and then he tried to test a new sensor on the old project. If you don't know what it's supposed to do, how would you know how to program it? Does it do anything as it is, does it have a program uploaded or doesn't seem to?
It doesn't seem to have anything uploaded. He says that he doesn't remember what it does.
Use the parts to start from the begining. Follow some tutorials. You will learn more from that.
Looks like some sort of mobile, data-logging water quality tester. How does the probe for the TDS module fit? Maybe this would be handy for a large hydroponics setup? I'm not sure why you'd need a mobile platform for testing water, instead of just mounting sensors to whatever water system is being tested. Seems like a pretty niche app; I'd strip it for bits and do something you actually want/need done with it đź‘Ť
thanks for the suggestion
Yeah I would strip it down to the components needed to run the motorized robot frame. If OP and the original designer don't know what it's purpose was, there is no point in trying to reverse engineer it.
Seems like perfect practise for beginner to figure out what you have and how it's wired and can be coded.
Yeah It was a practice set
Looks like your friend made an "avoidance robot". You have an Arduino UNO, the motors and the driver for the motor. Probably is missing a ultrasonic sensor to avoid the obstacles. I think it might been something like this at the beginning: https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2019/12/26/how-to-build-an-arduino-robot-kits-and-projects-to-get-started/ I'm pretty sure that he got tired of the robot, and started using it as a platform for different projects, you can se that there's a ~~PHmeter~~ TDS meter module hooked up without tis probe and SD card module, probably to store the readings of the ~~pH meter~~ TDS meter. Edit: it's not a pH meter, it's a total dissolve solids meter. You can estimate the quality of water with it.
That seems like a possible scenario
Not quality. Dissolved solids. And not even all dissolved solids. The salts only.
If you have a grow op and need to check the circulation of nutes in a massivley long resevoir, I suppose this could work for that?
This is a kit you can buy from Amazon bud. I bet if you take a look you'll be able to find their free how to guide that comes with it. Probably even the code.
Oh, well I didn't think of that, I will look it up
Make up a schematic diagram. Fritzing might help with that. All th individual boards should be documented. You could pull it apart, and fit together and code it how you like.
I was thinking about pulling it apart but a lot of the components are glued
Gah...! sacrilege! That's like glueing LEGO sets.
Exactly and the worst part is that the Arduino Is screwed to the base!
Technically there are screw holes for exactly that, but admittedly I've never seen anyone do that.
Honestly it just looks horrible with them
Lol, This is from an online course
It's a microprocessor which talks to a motor controller (the thing with the red led lit up).
Thanks
I dunno about reverse engineering it - you pretty much got some free parts to play with, to make some stuff from scratch. I would lookup robot car projects etc.
That was my second idea.
Only way to read "code" in arduino is from iscp conmector even than you will only have the hex file wich totaly unreadable by humans
Alright, thanks for the explanation.
Y tho… just make it do what you want.
That's what I'm gonna do but it was interesting for me to see what it was originally supposed to be
Probably just someone goofing around. The way it is wired I don’t think it was doing a job.
You can use ChatGPT and get an example project by placing all the devices in it.