Controlling the Dagu Rover 5

In this tutorial I will provide step by step instructions on how to wire up the motors and encoders on the dagu 5 rover.

The Rover:

The dagu rover 5 is an excellent robot platform and it has three different options: 2 motors 0 encoders ,2 motors 2 encoders or 4 motors 4 encoders. In this tutorial I will be using the 4 motors  4 encoders but if you have another version you can probably modify the instructions to modify your needs. The pricing is very reasonable and you can pick up the simplest model of abut £30.00 but my model cost £39.17 ex VAT from www.robosavvy

The Shield:

The shield costs around £13.00 and provides support for 4 motors and their encoders as well as ports for an xbee or wifly controller as well as a GPS! You can find more detail at 

https://robosavvy.com/store/dagu-commotion-motor-driver-shield.html .

Opening The Box:

When you open the box to your brand-new rover you should find the rover itself along with a screwdriver, alan key, some grease and a battery holder. You will probably notice that there are plugs not bare wires and too many encoder plugs but DO NOT PANIC as the next step will explain why.

Wiring Up

in order to plug your rover in to the board you should first orientate the board so M1 faces motor one on the rover then trace the black and red wires from that motor to the plug an cut the plug off leaving about 3-4 cm of wire still on the plug(keep the plugs incase you want to solder them back on for use with a different shield) then strip the wire. Next post the wire into the holes and screw it in. Now take the corresponding encoder and plug it in in the order shown on the diagram at the top of the page leaving to the white wire as that does not matter.

Next Time

Watch out for the next tutorial in which we will build a screw-on cover and platform to mount the shields on.