Robot building

In my earlier blogs I hinted on a robot built with a posting of
Arduino, Vex receiver and signal splitter.

Electric wheelchair inspection and breakdown

I picked up a broken electric wheelchair Jet3 Ultra from the local flea market for $50. It was complete with a broken chair support but not running. I began to strip it down to the bare essentials i.e. remove the seat and support, leg rest arms, fenders and bumpers. I replace the fuse and tinkered around with the controller and finally got it to power up. Here you have it! a complete, powered, really sturdy robot base that can really cut down on development time.

High Level design parameters

1. Keep original wheel chair controller: The controller have a number of built in safe guards such as locking the wheel when not active, power on test, speed control especially when turning at high speeds.

2. Incorporate a wireless control : Arduino, Vex receiver and signal splitter.

3. Computer control: Automation with various sensors such as digital compass, accelerometers, vision, maps, internet, LCD display and whatever I can throw at it.

The original motor controller

The key to success in interfacing with wheelchair motor controller is to tap into the joystick input.

First, we will need a switch to flip between joystick and an alternate source of input: computer and or remote control.