How To Radio Control DC Motors Cheaply

What Is A "VEX"?
For the people who don't know what a "VEX" is. It is a company that sells robotic parts and
kits. They sell a "VEX" transmitter and receiver on their site for $129.99 but you can get a
"VEX" transmitter and receiver for about $20 on "Ebay" and many other places.

The "VEX" transmitter is a 6 channel FM transmitter with 2 joysticks that can go up & down
and from side to side. On the backside of the transmitter there are 4 buttons which control
channel 5 and channel 6. The transmitter controls can be set to tank-style or arcade-style. The
transmitter has a host of other features.
This makes it a very cheap way to remote control servos. The only problem is that you can
only control servos motors and you need to buy an expensive $149.99 "VEX" microcontroller
just in order to do that. That is until now!
 BUYING The Motor Interface Chip

To buy the Motor Interface Chip used in this article send the money thru PayPal to the e-mail
address: areaperson@hotmail.com

If Being Shipped Within The U.S. The cost of the chip is $14.95 + $2.00 S/H = Total $16.95

If Being Shipped Outside The U.S. The cost of the chip is $14.95 + $3.00 S/H = Total $17.95

How It All Works

This low cost "motor interface chip" can decode the signals from the "VEX" receiver to
control up to 8 motor's H-bridges and 1 driver. It can also receive commands from another
microcontroller chip to control the motors.

This interface chip uses 3 output pins to control a motor's H-Bridge. Two pins to control the
motor's direction and one pin to control the motor's speed by using P.W.M.

The chip uses the input from the two buttons on channel 5 to control the input from the
"VEX" transmitter left joystick so that it can control 6 motors. The chip uses the input from
the other 2 buttons on channel 6 to lock in the high or low output on pin 14 of the motor
interface chip.

The motor interface chip has the following features. These features may not work since a
receiver may pick up a signal from anywhere. We assume no responsible directly or
indirectly from using these parts. WARNING! NEVER USE THE REMOTE ON A ROBOT
THAT CAN CAUSE DAMAGE IF IT GOES OUT OF CONTROL. If your robot goes out of
transmitter range; the motor interface chip may shut down the motors and give control to a
microcontroller if your robot is using one. This may also be true if you turn your transmitter
off.

The motor interface chip does not use a serial port to communicate with other
microcontrollers. This means you can use a very inexpensive microcontroller chip to be the
brains of your robot.

Putting a low on pin 2 will cause all the motors to operate at half the power level when using
the transmitter.
 How To Hook Up The VEX Reciever To The Interface Chip

Motors, relays and power supplies will cause radio interference; so pick a spot on your robot
where the "VEX" reciever is far away from these things. I mounted mine on a 43 in. long
mast that was attach to the robot's base.

The "VEX" reciever comes with a yellow cable. Plug the cable into the "VEX" reciever, the
other end of the cable plugs into a telephone handset jack. You must buy the jack. Since I will
not know the colors of the wires coming out of your jack; I will referent the yellow cable
wires. If you look at the yellow cable you will see 4 wires which are yellow, green, red and
white. The yellow wire gets wired to + 5 volts. The green wire is the signal and it gets wired
to pin 6 on the interface chip. The red wire gets wired to ground. The white wire is not used.

You need to wire a 4.7 K pull up resistor from pin 6 on the Interface Chip to the + 5 volts.
You will also want to wire a 2200 uf capacitor across the power wires close to the "VEX"
reciever.

Pin 2 is an input pin. It must be wired and NOT left floating. It can be wired to + 5 volts or
ground thru a 47 ohm resistor. It can also be wired to pin 14.

Option 1: pin 2 high will give the full range of power to the motors.

Option 2: pin 2 low will give half the range of power to the motors.

Option 3: pin 2 wired to pin 14. When channel 6 top button is pressed it gives the full range
of power to the motors. When channel 6 bottom button is pressed it gives half the range of
power to the motors.

NOTE: If you do NOT plan to run the robot from a computer or microcontroller then you
need to wire a 1K ohms resistor to + 5 volts and the other end of the 1K ohms resistor goes to
pin 7 & 33.
 How To Hook Up A Microcontroller To The Interface Chip

Your microcontroller if you are using one can communicate with the Interface Chip over 3
wires. Pin 7 on the Interface Chip is the input for the data bit. When the pin is low it is a zero
data bit. When the pin is high it is a one data bit. Your microcontroller must output the data
bit before the clock pulse. The data bit must be at least 40 us long.

Pin 33 on the Interface Chip is the input for the clock bit. Your microcontroller must output a
high pulse for at least .5 us.

Pin 5 on the Interface Chip is an output pin. When this pin goes high it is to let your
microcontroller know that it is ready to receive the next command. This pin will go low if the
Interface Chip is getting a signal from the "VEX" transmitter. This pin will also go low and
stay low if there was a communication error between your microcontroller and the Interface
Chip.

Pin 4 is an output pin. If there is a communication error between the Interface Chip and your
microcontroller, this pin will go high and stay high . A reset must be done in order to clear
this error.
 List Of The Commands

There are 32 commands that the interface chip understands. All the commands are 3 bytes or
24 bits long. The format for the commands are as follows.

The 1st byte that is sent is always the command byte which is the left most number on the list
below.

The 2nd byte sent may be a PWM byte. It is a number between 0 and 50. When a 0 is sent the
P.W.M. pulse is low which means the motor will be off. When the number 50 is sent the
P.W.M. pulse is high which means the motor will be on at full power. When the number 25 is
sent the motor will run at about half power. As seen on the list sometimes the 2nd byte is just
0 which is being used just for a place holder. It has no affect on the motor.

The 3rd byte sent may be a PWM byte or an error checking number.

For example: To order motor 1 to go at full speed and motor 2 to go at half speed forward, the
command would be.
1 50 25
To order motor 7 to go backward at 10% power, the command would be.
16 5 16

1 Motor 1 & 2 forward, PWM #, PWM # (no error checking)

2 Motor 1 & 2 backward, PWM #, PWM # (no error checking)
3 Motor 1 forward, PWM #, 3
4 Motor 1 backward, PWM #, 4
5 Motor 2 forward, PWM #, 5
6 Motor 2 backward, PWM #, 6
7 Motor 3 forward, PWM #, 7
8 Motor 3 backward, PWM #, 8
9 Motor 4 forward, PWM #, 9
10 Motor 4 backward, PWM #, 10
11 Motor 5 forward, PWM #, 11
12 Motor 5 backward, PWM #, 12
13 Motor 6 forward, PWM #, 13
14 Motor 6 backward, PWM #, 14
15 Motor 7 forward, PWM #, 15
16 Motor 7 backward, PWM #, 16
17 Motor 8 forward, PWM #, 17
18 Motor 8 backward, PWM #, 18
19 All motors speed, PWM #, 19
20 Motor 1 & 2 speed, PWM #, PWM # (no error checking)
21 Motor 1 & 2 stop, X, 21 (pins low)
22 Motor 1 stop, 0, 22 (pins low)
23 Motor 2 stop, 0, 23 (pins low)
24 Motor 3 stop, 0, 24 (pins low)
25 Motor 4 stop, 0, 25 (pins low)
26 Motor 5 stop, 0, 26 (pins low)
27 Motor 6 stop, 0, 27 (pins low)
28 Motor 7 stop, 0, 28 (pins low)
29 Motor 8 stop, 0, 29 (pins low)
30 All motors stop, 0, 30 (pins low)
31 Pin 14 high, 0, 31
32 Pin 14 low, 0, 32

Pin Summary
Input Pins

Pin 1 If it goes low it does a rest (MCLR)

Pin 2 If low it only gives one half of the output to the motors
Pin 6 "VEX" receiver
Pin 7 commands and data from another microcontroller
Pin 33 data interrupt
Pin 11 + voltage
Pin 32 + voltage
Pin 12 ground
Pin 31 ground

Output Pins

Pin 34 P.W.M. for motor 1

Pin 35 High when joystick 1 is left
Pin 36 High when joystick 1 is right
Pin 37 P.W.M. for motor 2
Pin 38 High when joystick 2 is up
Pin 15 High when joystick 2 is down
Pin 16 P.W.M. for motor 3
Pin 17 High when joystick 3 is up
Pin 18 High when joystick 3 is down
Pin 23 P.W.M. for motor 4
Pin 24 High when joystick 4 is left
Pin 25 High when joystick 4 is right
Pin 26 P.W.M. for motor 5
Pin 19 High when joystick 3 is up and top button 5 is press
Pin 20 High when joystick 3 is down and top button 5 is press
Pin 21 P.W.M. for motor 6
Pin 22 High when joystick 4 is left and top button 5 is press
Pin 27 High when joystick 4 is right and top button 5 is press
Pin 28 P.W.M. for motor 7
Pin 29 High when joystick 3 is up and bottom button 5 is press
Pin 30 High when joystick 3 is down and bottom button 5 is press
Pin 8 P.W.M. for motor 8
Pin 9 High when joystick 4 is left and bottom button 5 is press
Pin 10 High when joystick 4 is right and bottom button 5 is press
Pin 14 Stays high when top button 6 is press; goes low when bottom button 6 is press
Pin 5 Tells other microcontroller it can send the next command
Pin 4 Goes high if a command error has been detected

All the other pins are not being used.