XY-Plotter: No response from solenoid

#1

Hi,
I recently have put together the XY Plotter kit but unfortunately it doesn’t work perfectly. I cannot get any response from the pen holder mechanism. This is what happens - when I send an image from the Android app as soon as the code lines (analogWrite(motorPwm,70)) are hit the entire sketch resets. So the meduino resets & initializes the motors again making them go back to 0,0. I have checked the motor connections but no luck there. Here’s what I have tried:

  1. Regardless of whether I connect the solenoid wires to M1 or M2 of the base shield the M2 forward LED is on. So I switched the motorDrc and motorPwm pins to 7 & 6 in the Arduino sketch respectively but no luck there either
  2. Used my own Arduino in place of the Meduino, no luck
  3. Modified the sketch to simply analogWrite to the motor with some delay of 10 ms but it keeps resetting the board

When attaching the solenoid shaft to the pen holder with zip-tie should the spring be in most compressed position? Can someone please help?

Regards,
Satyajit

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// EDIT - 7th May //
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I decided to measure the voltage across both the M1 & M2 pins on the base shield and it turns out the voltage across (M1+/M1-) and (M2+/M2-) is 0V. Is it supposed to be like that? Doesn’t this mean that the solenoid is not being powered by the base shield? Do I have a bad base shield?
Can someone please help?

Regards,
Satyajit

#2

Hi @satyajit,

I’m very sorry for reply so late. Can you try the solenoid with the demo program of DC motor? (Actually, the solenoid is a DC motor). You can find it in the Arduino IDE, Files->Examples->makeblock->Me-motordrivers.

So we can know the where the problem comes from – Baseshield or the program of XY plotter.

p.s: Does everything is work except the solenoid? I just want to make sure that you have plug the power supply to baseshield, not the meduino.

#3

Hi @Johnny,
Thanks for your response. I tried your suggestions & here’s what happened:
I connected motor wire to M2 and modified the sketch to MeDCMotor motor4(M2); Now if I upload and run, the board keeps resetting. If with the same sketch I connect the motor wire to M1, then it looks like at least the sketch is working because the M2 forward LED lights up, stays on for sometime & then turns off in a loop. I think it is because of the code in the loop which starts at 100 and eventually slows the motor down to 0.
But I get no response from the solenoid itself, no movement at all. By the way since yo asked, everything else works great - the stepper motors, limit switches, bluetooth module, all of them.

#4

Hi @satyajit ,

I got your test feedback. Can you try the test program(TestDCMotorDriver.ino) without the solenoid? If the LEDs of both M1 and M2 are working(lights up first, stays on for sometime & then turns off in a loop), I am afraid the problem is that the solenoid is burnt out.

You can try to get the resistance value of the solenoid by multimeter. If the solenoid is burnt out, the resistance value of it is different with the normal one. You can write the value here.

#5

Hi @satyajit,

How is that going? Have you check that again?

#6

Hi @Johnny,
I did what you asked for and without the solenoid connected both LEDs M1 & M2 respond to the sketch. They light up, stay on & then turn off in a loop. The solenoid resistance was always 0 ohms, I couldn’t get any other reading from it. So does it mean the solenoid’s burnt out?

#7

Hi @satyajit,

The solenoid is burnt out if the resistance is 0 ohms. Do you have any order recently on our website? If so, I can add a solenoid into it for free. Or you can buy it on ebay,

#8

Hi @Johnny,
Unfortunately I don’t have any order pending with Makeblock but I have ordered the solenoid now from Makeblock, so don’t worry about it.

#9

My solenoid is also not responding, but I don’t think it’s burned out. When I power up the unit the step motor resets to the up position, but there is no response from the “pen up” or “pen down” buttons when connected, and during drawing it does not go up or down. any ideas?

#10

Hi Michael_Todd,

which version XY Plotter do you use? Could you take a picture for the main Board?

#11

I just bought it, so whatever you are shipping out these days. I can take a pic if needed later today.

#12

Hi Michael_Todd,

Thanks for the info,it should be XY Plotter V2.0 which can be see in this link: http://makeblock.com/xy-plotter-robot-kit

As for the issue that no response from the “pen up” or “pen down” buttons, have you upgrade firmware for XY Plotter? Will the XY movable seat move to Home position (X=0, Y=0) when you click on Home icon?

Pasted image962x438 52.1 KB

If you have upgrade the firmware successfully and the Home button work properly, please also double check the wires connection especially related to the servo.

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#13