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Hi,

So othis is my first post on this forum, and have high hopes for this forum.

Controlling remote things have always interrested me, and have for a longtime ago played with cameras on my foam plane, where i build the ATV transmitter, because those were not purchasable at the time for this purpose.

The plan is to build a UGV, that is rugid, and I can safely send it outside without worring that anyone can just pick it up and run with it, or do damage to it. I have been gathering up the vital parts, and when I have the items i gan find to do some proper calcs, ill draw a 3D model of the beast. As this is not a company financed build, i have to go for low cost, but not low quality - Meaning, ill have to settle with the items that are readily available at fair price, and can not affort making everything by 3.rd party persones...

The UGV will be a remotely operated vehicle, with heavy duty rubber belt tracks, internal chain gearing possiblity, Camera with OSD with vitals. Driven by 24V, batteries. Must be able to withstand a growm person standing on it, but not be possible for a grown man to lift completely off the ground. Withstand water(rain), dust/sand.. Must be shut down or started by key. must be possible to attach "cartriges" on front (or maybe as a middle section), that can hold various tools/accesories like Extra battery, snow blower, rotary broom, hydraulic front lift, or whatever comes in handy.

There must be focus on low power consumption when at standby (not moving), maybe solar panels will be utilized to extend standby period.

So the status of the project so far:

- Mechanically, I have 2 wheelchair motors, drive pulleys, bearing blocks is in the mail, Belt tracks, chains, batteries.

- The low loss downconverter (from 24V to 12 and 5V) have been designed, and is in process of final PCB manufacture.

- The dual drive PWM controller have been build, it takes the PWM signal form a servo that it is auto configured to, and from that, produces two PWM 0-100% dutycycle 32KHz signals out, one for each direction the motor should run.

- The above two PWM signals is fed to a H-Bridge power drive, also completed design, and the final PCB is beeing manufactured. The Fets has a rated Id, if 209A, and running the wheelchair motor at "as much as you can hold it" load, does not even produce heat to the fets - Thats about 10 Amps @ 24V.

The finished controll with be a one stick operation, where mix is done by the remote.

All electronics designed from ground up, The PWM controller will be connected to the driver, and monitor the fets temperature, to ensure that the OSD will give indication of overload, and the driver board can be shut down.

Im realy looking forward to info/problem solving/inspiration etc from this forum... I can see that there is alot of interresting projects.

In the pictures you see the tracks, motor, electronics.

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