Arduino controlled wheelchair

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby gcebiker » 28 Jul 2019, 11:08

http://greenmobility.com.au/rc-wheelchair-controller/
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby gcebiker » 28 Jul 2019, 11:24

Adverse Effects - Ive a Jazzy 600, complete and working. $400
Batteries are gone but will work enough to drive it around.

There is an internal break in one of the motor wires (happens with the fixed rear/moving motor of these models), i have it held up with a zip tie and works no problem.

Ill hold onto woodys BT controller, its a handy thing to have on hand 'just in case'
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 28 Jul 2019, 18:32

gcebiker wrote:http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6503&start=300#p140043


thanks gcbicker, what you did is really a good job, congratulations :clap:

I will try to get help in making the card from some friend, who is competent in electronics.
To then connect the card to the shark (DK-REMD01B), could you tell me what kind of cable I should buy?
Can you imagine that the card works for any type of shark joystick?

Is this the exact scheme?

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/download/file.php?id=10789&mode=view

Thanks.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 28 Jul 2019, 18:44

Is this the exact scheme?

download/file.php?id=10789&mode=view

Thanks


That is similar ...but has the addition of pull ups / downs and a reconfiguration of the placement for the 22k resistor.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 28 Jul 2019, 18:56

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 28 Jul 2019, 19:42



Thanks woody, I saw that you designed a robot very similar to the one I would like to make, I hope I can make it myself, maybe I'll ask you for advice if I can.
Did you make the app you use, or did you discard it from the store?
In the second case I could help you with my project to be able to customize it, I'm trying to implement a small IA session in the code to take advantage of voice commands and visual recognition... maybe in addition to just asking for advice, I can be useful in some way :? ;)
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 28 Jul 2019, 22:06

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 03 Aug 2019, 14:52

Hello, can I ask you if between the electronic components are essential tolerances (for example diodes and resistors), because I I found some with tolerance + - 5% in contrast with those listed at 1%

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6503&start=300#p140043

and if the electrolytic capacitor can be on 10v instead of 6.3v?

Can I , also, ask you what kind of cable I have to buy to connect the board to the shark joystick?
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 03 Aug 2019, 14:58

The components that you have should be fine.

You can just cut your existing cable and use that... inside it has two large 24v power cables ( Red and Black ) plus the yellow and blue of the RS482 connections.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby gcebiker » 04 Aug 2019, 12:57

woodygb wrote:The components that you have should be fine.

You can just cut your existing cable and use that... inside it has two large 24v power cables ( Red and Black ) plus the yellow and blue of the RS482 connections.


edit / #RS485

The electrolytic capacitor should ....technically, not even be necessary (due to the specs of the voltage regulator) but I put it in, just in case someone was using a 7805 transistor with a heat-sink, which would need it.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 04 Aug 2019, 21:49

Excuse the trivial question, but should the board be connected to the joystick or to the control unit? I have this input on the joistick

https://ibb.co/thvKDZh

which I think is its programming input, can you tell me if I can use both the emulator board and the joystick in this case if the board doesn't work?
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 04 Aug 2019, 22:17

That picture you posted is of the charging and programming port and has NOTHING to do with how you wish to connect or control the chair.

You can either CUT the wire from the joystick to access the 4 wires that you want OR buy an extension cable like the one link to below and cut that.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/303127416583


You can then just swap between the two EITHER the joystick OR the emulator board.

It is however possible to combine both if you incorporate a DPDT relay.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 04 Aug 2019, 22:24

Here is one that I made with a relay....this gave me a choice of just the joystick with the relay OFF /closed or Radio Control with the relay powered / ON

INTERFACE LABELS DYNAMIC A.jpg
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 04 Aug 2019, 22:32

Dynamic BUS CABLE...

Note:- That your joystick may or may not have the bus cable hard wired in.

You will most likely want to buy the purple one.


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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 05 Aug 2019, 19:04

Here is one that I made with a relay....this gave me a choice of just the joystick with the relay OFF /closed or Radio Control with the relay powered / ON


I understand, so I need a relay and an extension cable :)

I saw behind in the post a diagram with relay, can I follow that?

Thanks
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 05 Aug 2019, 19:14

You can try...but I'm not sure if it is very well documented.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 05 Aug 2019, 19:23

woodygb wrote:You can try...but I'm not sure if it is very well documented.


unfortunately I am not very familiar with electronics, I understand the basic concepts but when I have to mount a simple relay for me it is already difficult. Can I ask you how to connect it with the on-off button on the board?
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 05 Aug 2019, 20:05

I you have little or no experience of electronics or programming an Arduino .... then it's going to be VERY difficult to guide you.

There is NO on/off button on the board for the relay ...there is however an on/off switch that I used for isolating the power to the Arduino.

The relay is connected via a transistor to a pin on the Arduino ... this pin is coded to go "high" in response to a R/C signal and " turns on " the transistor which in turn activates the relay.

Did you understand any of that?
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 05 Aug 2019, 20:11

YOU might find it easier to go the manual route with one of these ..a DPDT slide switch instead of a relay.

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 05 Aug 2019, 20:40

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 05 Aug 2019, 20:51

The relay is connected via a transistor to a pin on the Arduino ... this pin is coded to go "high" in response to a R/C signal and " turns on " the transistor which in turn activates the relay.

Did you understand any of that?


I understand the concept but I do not feel safe in applying it in practice. I wouldn't want to burn the circuit due because of incompetence
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 05 Aug 2019, 21:12

Max71 wrote:http://datasheetz.com/data/Switches/Slide/25146NLDB-datasheetz.html

Woody, do you think this could go?


Yes ..that looks fine.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby ex-Gooserider » 06 Aug 2019, 02:42

Max71 wrote:Hi woody, I'm developing an app that can work as a command emulator for a motorized system. My aim is to make a wheelchair (of my mother) move independently in the home environment, as it is experiencing a period of great depression due to the impossibility of moving independently. The house is small and moving is difficult even for a young person, let alone an elderly person with reduced vision. <SNIP>
Massimo


While not directly related to how to do your project, the above bit makes me feel rather concerned - it is generally not considered safe or wise to do radio or other remote control / autonomous stuff with an OCCUPIED power chair, UNLESS the occupant has the mental and physical ability to at least trigger an emergency stop if something goes wrong - the factory control systems are designed and heavily tested to be both 'Fail-safe' and 'Safe-Fail' in that they are unlikely to fail, and if they do the chair stops moving (Generally the safest option)... Radio signals can be disrupted, and not all of our designs have been torture tested to ensure 'Safe-Fail' operation.... Driving your mother through a wall if something goes wrong is likely to leave her with worse problems than just depression... :problem: :( BE CAREFUL!

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 06 Aug 2019, 12:04

Hi ex-Gooserider

I fully agree with you. I would never risk leaving the tool management in total autonomy. My goal is to be able to make it move for small movements,with my supervision, with the help of some sensor that would only work as a stop if it gets too close to an obstacle, on the other hand, she has visually impaired so the problem has it. Thanks anyway for the warning. I will do the tests on automatic driving movements without her.
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Max71 » 06 Aug 2019, 12:06

woodygb wrote:
Max71 wrote:http://datasheetz.com/data/Switches/Slide/25146NLDB-datasheetz.html

Woody, do you think this could go?


Yes ..that looks fine.


Thanks woody!
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby woodygb » 06 Aug 2019, 12:24

Any DPDT switch will do ...use a toggle switch if that better suits you .

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby gcebiker » 07 Aug 2019, 23:12

ex-Gooserider wrote:
Max71 wrote:Hi woody, I'm developing an app that can work as a command emulator for a motorized system. My aim is to make a wheelchair (of my mother) move independently in the home environment, as it is experiencing a period of great depression due to the impossibility of moving independently. The house is small and moving is difficult even for a young person, let alone an elderly person with reduced vision. <SNIP>
Massimo


While not directly related to how to do your project, the above bit makes me feel rather concerned - it is generally not considered safe or wise to do radio or other remote control / autonomous stuff with an OCCUPIED power chair, UNLESS the occupant has the mental and physical ability to at least trigger an emergency stop if something goes wrong - the factory control systems are designed and heavily tested to be both 'Fail-safe' and 'Safe-Fail' in that they are unlikely to fail, and if they do the chair stops moving (Generally the safest option)... Radio signals can be disrupted, and not all of our designs have been torture tested to ensure 'Safe-Fail' operation.... Driving your mother through a wall if something goes wrong is likely to leave her with worse problems than just depression... :problem: :( BE CAREFUL!

ex-Gooserider


The safest way is that movement of the chair (post joystick input) are reduced to a 'stop' state if an obstacle was detected by some sort of sensor, eg ultrasonic / Lidar . Woody has videos of such an interface ...i think there and/or there are variations on the theme on YouTube.
http://greenmobility.com.au/rc-wheelchair-controller/
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby ex-Gooserider » 13 Aug 2019, 04:40

True that it would in theory be safer to have sensors to trigger a stop, but on the flip side every time you add more stuff to the code, you also add potential for unexpected glitches and bugs, so it can be a mixed bag for the benefit.... Arguably it might be better to have an independent safety circuit that just triggers an inhibit, but that also has pitfalls...

In addition sensors and so on can also themselves fail....

It is why firearms safety training both encourages the use of "safety's" and at the same time tells you NOT to rely on them.... Same deal...

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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby Irving » 13 Aug 2019, 11:47

@max71 While I applaud your thinking and determination this isn't something easily done. A colleague of mine runs a research project involving teams from UK and France looking at 'shared control' systems for wheelchairs - think of it like riding a horse; you tell it which way, it does the job of (mostly) avoiding obstacles etc. The problems and challenges are non-trivial - even getting obstacle detection to work reliably in a home environment with varying hard and soft surfaces/material etc is a challenge; what works well to avoid walls and steer down a 1.5m+ wide corridor is all but useless to steer through a 1m gap between a sofa and a coffee table for example. And they've tried everything from simple ultrasonics, laser scanners, lidar, millimetric radar, machine vision, etc, etc. No one sensor technology works reliably in all environments.

But don't let that stop you... maybe you'll be the one to crack it!
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Re: Arduino controlled wheelchair

Postby gcebiker » 13 Aug 2019, 12:51

Irving wrote:@max71 While I applaud your thinking and determination this isn't something easily done. A colleague of mine runs a research project involving teams from UK and France looking at 'shared control' systems for wheelchairs - think of it like riding a horse; you tell it which way, it does the job of (mostly) avoiding obstacles etc. The problems and challenges are non-trivial - even getting obstacle detection to work reliably in a home environment with varying hard and soft surfaces/material etc is a challenge; what works well to avoid walls and steer down a 1.5m+ wide corridor is all but useless to steer through a 1m gap between a sofa and a coffee table for example. And they've tried everything from simple ultrasonics, laser scanners, lidar, millimetric radar, machine vision, etc, etc. No one sensor technology works reliably in all environments.

But don't let that stop you... maybe you'll be the one to crack it!


Cant be that insurmountable, its a maths / parabolic problem. Instead of the chair driving to the gap directly, drive to it so that it is going through square...or square ish.

When learning to drive we are taught to look in the distance and our brains will figure out the rest, its triangulation. The closer we focus the sharper the angles become and the more sever our driving/steering correction's are.

If distance sensors were on each side of a wheelchair, a narrow 'field of view' and mounted on servo's, directed by a lidar.
....maybe two sets on each side, left side measuring the distance the left side of the obstacle and the left side measuring the right side to the obstacle and visa versa.
Creating double triangles.

Surely its just a maths problem to get the 'base' of the quad triangles to equal each other. To fit squarely though a gap.... ?
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