Hello everyone, I'm currently mulling over the idea of creating a circuit board for the ar3. I'm thinking about using Tic 36v4 USB Multi-Interface High-Power Stepper Motor Controller as motor controllers to save space and integrate as much as possible into the board. My goal is to fit as much into a modified base wire box as possible, so that the robot is a single unit without the need for an external control box. The only external wires would be USB cables for control and power cords. Firstly I'm curious of your guys thoughts on this. But also on a technical stand point wondering if the Controllers would work with the current control software assuming the pul,dir pins are connected to the step,dir pins of the new controllers.
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to be honest I feel AR2/3 design is pretty old and over complex especially on wiring. It make new comer spend a lot of time to try and error on wiring, identify the failure, and need to purchase lot of thing from different vendor. I would like to suggest completely redesign circuit and do some modification also like make use CAN bus, use motor with build in encoder to greatly reduce the complexity of design and wiring.
The cost of purchase misc tools, the shipping cost, and lost time I feel it is higher compare to use better motor (with build in encoder).
Anyhow, during assemble AR3 the learning journey is very-very enjoyable and fun. Just, the AR3 may not that robust due to too much wiring components, any single component may fail anytime from user mistake