Programming and Troubleshooting

Programming:

Now we're ready to load each board with its corresponding code:

  1. Load the Joystick-C-code.side program onto the Activity Board with the Joystick circuit, then
  2. Load the XBeeMotor-C-code.side program onto the Activity Board hosting the Pololu board.

 

Check List & Troubleshooting:

  1. Double check your wiring one last time by going over the legend and cross checking it with the schematic.
  2. Verify both XBees are socketed in correctly with the angled edges facing away from the board.
  3. Make sure your XBee jumper wires are going from DO to pin 9 and DI to pin 8 on both boards.
  4. Turn both boards on and wait a few seconds for the XBees to initialize. The order in which you turn them on doesn't matter.
  5. Move the Joystick forward, backward, left and right and verify that the DC motors move accordingly.

If your motors are spinning in the wrong direction:

  • You may have your leads reversed, try swapping the leads going into M2OUT2 and the lead going into M2OUT1 with each other. Do the same for M1OUT2 and M1OUT1.
  • It is also possible that you have each pair of wires going to the wrong motor entirely, in this case try swapping each pair of wires onto the opposite motor.