Use our cb20 Board. A maxon motor controller on a db11 Board delivers the necessary power. Connect all the necessary signals according to your hardware configuration file.

Connectors P10 delivers the 8 analog output channels. Connect channel 0 with the motor driver. Further, you have to connect the enable signal to the motor driver as well, in order for it to deliver power. Connector P9 encompasses this enable signal as well as ready signals. Before testing plug in the 12V DC power supply or the Li-Po battery, otherwise the motors won't run. ssh into the Beaglebone blue board and run

debian@beaglebone:$ rc_test_motors -m 1 -d 1

-m 1 selects the first motor while -d 1 specifies a duty cycle of 1. The motor should run in positive direction. If the motor turns in the opposite direction, change the + and - wire of the motor. You can stop the program by pressing Ctrl-C. The test program is located in /usr/bin and can be run from anywhere.

On the Beaglebone blue we do not use a motor controller and therefore, we do not use this signal. However, we put the signal onto the green led on the board.

There are 4 connectors denoted with 4 Quadrature encoder inputs. Connect number 1 with your encoder. Make sure that your encoder works with 3.3V as delivered by this connector. Test the encoder with

debian@beaglebone:$ rc_test_encoders 

Turning the motor in positive direction must lead to the encoder counting upwards. If not, change the A and B signal.

The ready signal signals to the controller that the motor controller has powered up. As there is no external motor controller on the Beaglebone blue we simply put this signal on a digital input pin which is connected to the on board push button Mode.

The emergency signal is used to bring the application in a safe mode. We put this input signal on a digital input pin which is connected to the on board push button Pause. Later when the application runs we can cause the safety system to switch to an emergency state by pressing the Pause button.