Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres EE 330 Final Project: RC Car Abstract: In this project, we had to design a circuit

to control a RC car using a laser pointer. The car was required to go forwards and backwards, and the front wheels had to be able to be locked left, right, and center. The car was equipped with two DC motors, one for steering and one for propulsion. For the steering motor, -2.7V turned the wheels left, 0V centered the wheels, and 2.7V turned the wheels right. For the drive motor, -3V moved the car backwards, and 3V moved the car forwards. This meant that the bulk of the project was switching the polarity for two motors. Design: The basic circuit we decided to use was the h-bridge. The h-bridge consists of four transistors that can be used as switches and is commonly used in motor control applications. Below is a picture of a basic h-bridge. Figure 1: basic h-bridge

This circuit will provide the motor with positive voltage when the High Left and Low Right switches are closed. It will provide the motor with negative voltage when the High Right and Low Left switches are closed. We tried several variations of this basic circuit before we found one that would work. We tried an integrated h-bridge chip. Unfortunately, it required 5V before it would begin operating. We also

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres tried a MOSFET bridge, but we couldnt get enough current to drive the motor. We tried using an NPN BJT bridge, but we couldnt get it to work either. The circuit that we finally got to work used PNPs for the High Side and NPNs for the Low Side. Below is a picture of our h-bridge. Figure 2: Our h-bridge configuration

The inputs have two states, Boolean high and Boolean low. When they are both high or low, the motor will not run. When the forward input is high and the reverse input is low, the Right High and Low Left transistors conduct. When the Reverse input is high and the Forward input is low, the Left High and Low Right transistors will conduct. This configuration also provides some short circuit protection because even when both inputs are high, the circuit does not conduct. Using this circuit, we were able to control the polarity of the voltage across our motor. Once we developed the basic circuit to provide a positive or negative voltage to the motor, we had to develop the circuit to provide the Boolean input to the h-bridge. We used a comparator for each Boolean input to make sure we had good separation between the high and low inputs. We used 4.5V as our Vdd and had a tripping voltage of 1.5V. Then, for the drive motor, all we had to do was design a voltage divider with a photo-resistor that would supply above 1.5V and below 1.5V depending on if a light was shining on the photo-resistor. Below is a picture of our drive circuit.

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres

Figure 3: Drive circuit

The steering circuit was slightly more complicated. We needed to supply a continuous voltage to the motor to keep the wheels locked in place. To do this we used SCRs. We used one comparator for each input again, but we supplied the voltage divider that fed the comparator with current from an SCR. We then used the photo-resistor to control the gate voltage of the SCR. This allowed us to lock the Boolean Inputs either high or low. To center the wheels, we needed to cut the current to the anode of the SCRs. We achieved this by running both SCRs off of one normally closed BJT switch. We built it in such a way that when we shined a light on the photo-resistor responsible for centering the wheels, the base voltage of the BJT was cut off. This pinched of the current that went to the anodes of the SCRs, allowing us to unlatch them. Below is a picture of our steering circuit.

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres Figure 4: Steering circuit

Once we finished designing our circuits, we condensed them so they would fit on one breadboard. Below are pictures of our final circuit and the finished car. We used paper cones to cut out the ambient light to the photo-resistors and to provide a slightly larger target to hit with the laser. The white paper reflects the light downward onto the photo-resistor and allowed us some leeway when aiming at the photo-resistors.

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres Figure 5: Combined circuit

Figure 6: Completed car

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres Below are the final schematics of our circuits. Figure 7: Drive circuit schematic

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres Figure 8: Steering circuit schematic

Results: Once we put our car together and tested it, we noticed a few problems. We do not get very much torque in the reverse direction, and the wheels did not turn as well to the right as to the left.

Craig Gustafson and Azmir Vatres However, despite these issues, we were still able to get the car to meet the specifications. Overall, this project took a lot longer than I thought it was going to. So many of our initial designs failed, I feared we werent going to be able to finish the project. Fortunately, we were finally able to design a circuit that performed as expected. Once we developed a working circuit, this project became fun and interesting. I am glad we chose the hardware project instead of a Verilog project because we have a much more tangible result.