Boe-Bot won't travel in a straight line.

Soxrox

If the rubber band tires aren't exactly on right will it affect the path of the robot? I recently recieved my Boe-Bot and have building and testing it for the past day or two. I attached the wheels, motors and chasis today and am in about page 100 in the instruction book. My Boe-Bot will not move straight. It constantly leans toward the right. I have seen it shift as much as .35 inches to the right for every 1 inch forward. What do you think is wrong? Thank you for any help.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Did you remember to null the servos?

-Phil

Scope

What's your code look like?

In a perfect world, with servos adjusted properly, to go straight, the pulse value should be the same value above and below 750:

FOR counter = 1 to 122
  PULSOUT 13, 650
  PULSOUT 12, 850
  PAUSE 20
NEXT

I believe if you wrote the following, your Boe-Bot would veer to the right or left instead of going straight:

FOR counter = 1 to 122
  PULSOUT 13, 650
  PULSOUT 12, 800
  PAUSE 20
NEXT

If you are sure you adjusted your servos properly, even if you have the correct pulse values, your servos may not perform at the same exact rate - you can compensate and tweak the code so you get the result you want - it's fairly easy to figure out how to tweak it so maneuvers are "very close" as long as you focus on solving one problem at a time. I also think it's very helpful to write down stuff in the book where it relates to what you're doing. When you figure out how to get an "exact" 90 degree turn, write it down - or print it out - then you won't have to figure it out again. Which is not always true b/c voltage and other conditions may vary.

I love my Boe-Bot so much I had my youngest son's first given name legally changed to "Boe-Bot"

k.c

Mine didnt travel straight either. my numbers were 815 and 650. I would start lowering the 850 to 840 to 830 and so on till you goes straight. Thats how i was able to achieve a straight line. good luck. Once you get to go straight you can use those numbers all the time.· The other thing that affected mine was carpet and tile. the boe bots turns were different on the carpet vs tile so watch out for that also.

Soxrox

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'll try all of them. Thanks again.