carty

Firmware for rc controlled raspberry-pi car.

• Introduction
• Install
• Troubleshooting
• License
• References

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Introduction

Version 1

1. Light controller for controlling lights of the car
2. Move controller for controlling movement of the car
3. Extension manager for adding sensors
4. Different modes:
   • real time mode - the car is controlled by remote controller in real time
   • programmable mode - the user predefines set of instruction and send it to the car
5. Bluetooth communication - remote controller will communicate with the firmware through bluetooth module. It can be replaced with wifi communication

Install

1. Clone the repo to your raspberry

2. Bluetooth module installation (Raspbian). This step will remove bluetooth console option to free the bluetooth for the carty controller.

   • Backup /boot/cmdline.txt - sudo cp /boot/cmdline.txt /boot/cmdline.txt.backup
   • Go and edit file /boot/cmdline.txt - remove "console=ttyAMA0, 115200 kgboc=ttyAMA0, 115200"
   • Backup /etc/inittab - sudo cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.backup
   • Go and edit file /etc/inittab - comment the line below the line "#Spawn a getty on Raspberry Pi serial line"
   • Reboot the Raspberry Pi

3. Controller

   • Download Arduino Bluetooth RC Car (Android). You can use other software for communication but most probably, it will require code modifications)
   • Start the android application and go to gear button t connect to raspberry-pi If you have any problems see troubleshoot section)

4. Motors

   • You will need breadboard and motor driver (In this project I use L293DNE search in google)

   • Cable the motor driver as described below: (start from left up to down of motor driver if you watch it with hole on top)

     Motor driver	Raspberry
     Left Right	Left Right
     PWM VCC	pin 26 pin 2
     LEFT RIGHT	pin 24 pin 11
     MOTOR MOTOR
     GND GND	pin 25 pin 25
     GND GND	pin 25 pin 25
     MOTOR MOTOR
     RIGHT LEFT	pin 22 pin 13
     VCC PWM	pin 2 pin 15

5. Install raspberry-pi gpio lib

   • sudo pip install rpi.gpio

6. You need pyserial for python3

   • git clone -b python3 https://github.com/makerbot/pyserial.git
   • cd pyserial
   • python3.4 setup.py install

7. Install boot script

   • edit /etc/rc.local
   • /path/to/carty/run.sh
   • reboot

8. PWM lib for raspberry PI

   • git clone https://github.com/metachris/RPIO.git)
   • cd RPIO
   • sudo python3.4 setup.py install

Troubleshooting

(Raspbian) Bluetooth connection problems.

If you have problem with bluetooth communication:

1. Install minicom tool sudo apt-get install minicom
2. Try to connect with another bluetooth device to Raspberry Pi.
3. minicom -b 9600 -o -D /dev/ttyAMA0
4. Try to send some messages between the raspberry-pi and the other device.
5. If you can't rx/tx messages from/to one of the sides check the jumpers on the serial bluetooth.

Bluetooth	Raspberry
VCC	5V power supply
GND	Ground (0)
TDX	RXD
RDX	TDX

License

GPL

References:

For more information see here