I would double check the pixhawk manual but I think it will allow you to run without RC capability. You won't be able to tune your controls, though. Troubleshooting might be harder, too.

@@ryanmoeller6892 I mean, our plan is to move the motors without using mission planner, and a RC. We use dronekit library for autonomous movements.

Yes the pixhawk can definitely make your robot autonomous. See this manual here: ardupilot.org/rover/

The easiest place to find a parts list is in my thesis paper where I used this robot to help develop a genetic algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem in the context of a center pivot potato field: www.researchgate.net/publication/342916625_GPS-Guided_Autonomous_Robot_with_Obstacle_Avoidance_and_Path_Optimization?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InByb2ZpbGUiLCJwYWdlIjoicHJvZmlsZSJ9fQ

The microcontroller is a Pixhawk and the motor controller is a Sabertooth Dual 12A

Not exactly sure what you're referring to but I didn't use a Kangaroo on this build.

Hi! I never figured out the motor thing, I think something is wired wrong or there needs to be a resistor somewhere. I'm using a swift navigation rtk gps. It's about $1500. You dont have to use an Arduino, in fact I'd recommend a pixhawk!

Thank you! That always confused me but I never took the time to understand it, makes sense now! That's how some electric cars work so I should have realized 🤦

I got it from superdroidrobots.com! I think it was a 10 inch tractor wheel.

I am not well versed in transmitters, but i would imagine yes it would have plenty of buttons and compatibility. one thing to take into account is how many help forums can be found on it. good luck, have fun!

I did not fully test the lidar functionality, so if can't answer that question, sorry. And as far as the way point input goes, the only way I know of is the manual way, but I think there must be a way to "hack" the pixhawk and send it way point from a c++ program on windows, for instance. Sorry not of much help there. If you want more functionality, ROS and a raspberry pi would be the way to go, but that's a whole different thing that I've never done before.

@@ryanmoeller6892 thanks.

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar enough with your setup to understand the question. Best of luck.

Look me up on research gate! My whole thesis on it is there. www.researchgate.net/profile/Ryan-Moeller-2

Disclaimer: it's been awhile but yes you mix the signals in the transmitter. Sounds like you need to add a channel for left/right using the controller. Make sure the mixing settings are the same in both the transmitter and the pixhawk.

At about 27 minutes there's a section that might be helpful. This was intended to be a boring but on depth explanation so that's what it is haha: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJxnp6Retcq6f4U.html

www.superdroidrobots.com/mechanical-parts/Gear-Motors/42mm-Gear-Motors/product=491

That whole website is awesome, they even have instructional pages that are amazing. Give it a look.

One last reply: that gear ratio I used was meant for a robot in muddy fields, i.e. high torque low speed. If you want to drive a light robot on paved roads that are mostly flat you will want a different motor with less gearing. They have a lot of gear ratios to choose from which is nice. They also have a web page for how to calculate robot speed if you don't already know.

I do not know the answer to that right now. In my mind it would be much easier to buy a motor controller that can accept pwm signals if you have the money. The saber motor controller I bought from super droid robotics cost around $60 I think. I would check pololu and adafruit for cheaper options, and maybe Amazon, too. I did just do a quick Google search and it looks feasible. Check out forum.arduino.cc/t/pwm-to-serial-converter/445692

Sorry for the late reply. This video might be helpful - sorry it's so boring! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJxnp6Retcq6f4U.html

I used the link at the end of this comment a lot. Read the entire manual in that link! Then, talk to anybody you can who has related experience. Lastly, use google/youtube to find internet forums to answer specific questions. As a bonus tip: mrobotics is a great company to buy products from, so is super droid robots, adafruit, and pololu. I would love to help more but I'm no longer doing this project and I don't have the time. Good luck and have fun! ardupilot.org/rover/

@@ryanmoeller6892 Thanks

This video is a little rough around the edges but I hope it helps! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJxnp6Retcq6f4U.html

Yes I used a separate, LiPo 3s battery for the pixhawk. The motors I went with were IG42 24VDC 078 RPM Gear Motor from Super Droid Robots. They were slow but had plenty of torque and then some.

I powered the motors with two of these in series: www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx/interstate-12-volt-8-ah-sealed-lead-acid-battery-sla-0-250-faston/1221/. Never tested it for more than an hour but I never noticed much of a battery level drop. I used these wheels: www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx/atr-wheel-and-shaft-set-pair-8mm-bore-10-inch-traction-lug/1995/ I followed this robot closely: www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx/new-prebuilt-4wd-ig42-sb-custom-length-and-width-robot/2806/

Hello! I used the Sabertooth documentation and some trial/error but you can see the layout at 2:08 (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/apN7qaRpp73QlXU.html). I wrote them down for you here: (disclaimer, the video was fuzzy so these might be backwards! I am not currently able to look at the robot itself so this is the best I can do.) 1: low 2: high 3: high 4: low 5: high 6: high

To set up my model I just followed the instructions that came with the receiver. This video is a little rough around the edges but might help: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJxnp6Retcq6f4U.html

Thanks, I'm really glad it helped! I did still use the Pixhawk because eventually I was going to use autonomous navigation which is really easy with Pixhawk/Mission Planner.

I'm glad this helped! The robot is all finished and I'm hoping to find time to make a video soon!

@@ryanmoeller6892 im looking forward to seeing any of your progress!

Yes PWM does work on the sabertooth. You have to set the switches on the sabertooth to the correct positions, though. You can find the information on which positions the switches need to be in by reading the sabertooth manual. (I got the manual from here where I bought it from: www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx/sabertooth-dual-12a-motor-driver/1155/) I used mode two, RC mode. When the X4R is connected directly to the motor controller you can use the X4R channel pins, one pin per channel. When the X4R is connected to the pixhawk you have to use the sbus pin because the pixhawk only has one input pin (RCIN) so unless you're only using one channel on the X4R you have to use sbus. I hope this helped.

I did this at first, but then I found that when I was turning in one direction and trying to move forward slightly, my finger would accidentally move the stick in the reverse direction and then back to the forward direction very rapidly. This would cause a lot of strain on the motors as they switched from forward to reverse and back. So i seperated the throttle and the turning so this wouldn't happen. Thinking about it now, I could have just adjusted the parameter for turning speed so that the wheels weren't at full speed when the stick was tilted all the to the left. Did that make sense haha!? You're right though, either way would work. I'll be using this mostly in auto mode so it doesn't affect things too much anyways.

@@ryanmoeller6892 I had experimented with using two sticks early on. But as my projects started using more channels I found it convenient to pile steering, direction and speed control on to just the right stick. Leaving the other stick free for other things. This idea was further advanced when I started building custom Pan/Tilt rigs for my event video side business. The right stick in those cases took care of pan/tilt with full speed control. While the left stick as well as other channel pots on the transmitter where free to use for zoom, focus and iris control. Record stop/start, etc. I just purchased a 6wd wild thumper chassis and am hoping to use the left stick to alternate between pan/tilt of a camera and other functions like an arm/gripper or turret control. So basically for me, consolidating motion control to one stick was out of a need to free up controls/channels for other things. Grouping them together for easy access. But what ever works, eh. ;) Good stuff all around. Again, good job! As for intergrating the PixHawk, I would like to make it a part time autonomous setup. One where I can remotely cut out automatic control to switch to manual when needed using the stick configuration I described.