Use a M200 with ESC to build a minigrinder

I would like to see if i can build a grinder with a M200 motor and attach it to my BR. is there a preferable aux/main servo port on my pixhawk for this purpose? I just need to run in one direction. Can i just enable the 2 light set and use that port in the pixhawk?

I don’t have any experience with a pixhawk, but you could wire the motor up to a relay and have on/off signals, which should suffice for a grinder.

What are you going to do with the grinder? Putting tools on an ROV is pretty cool.

You could repurpose the lights2 buttons like you describe, or you can use the servo buttons. The behavior is a little bit different for the two.

The lights channels are initialized at 1100us, which is neutral for most single-direction speed controllers. Our reversible speed controllers are neutral at 1500 PWM, so you will have to bring the lights output up to that value before the esc will arm.

There are also servo_min, max, center, increase, and decrease button functions. Servo 1, 2, and 3 correspond to Aux1, 2, and 3 on the pixhawk. Those functions will initialize at min, max or center PWM depending on which button is pushed first. They don’t output any PWM signal until a button is pushed.

He intends to use an M200 brushless motor which requires an electronic speed controller (ESC).

Thanks for that Jacob, i have already bought the M200 including the ESC from your store and will test it, propebly today.

I have connected the M200 with the ESC to AUX 1.What would be next step to be able to control it?

You should assign the function servo1_center and servo1_max or min to two joystick buttons as the normal function or shift function. Shift functions require the shift button to be pushed first.

Thanks Jacob, that made the diffrence :slight_smile:
I put it up with starting from senter and engaged the “inc.function” and liked that because it allowes me to go stepwise until i get 100%. When i was trying to activate the Logitech button to get access to the “shift” functions i just got this window popping up. I could not see that it enabled any of the 15 numbers while pushing it so i had to adress the no.0 (A button on my Logitech) as “shift” to be able to get into “shift” mode. is there a way that i can use the Logitech button as “shift” as it is shown on the operation manual? i would prefer to use the 0 button (A button on my Logitech) to be able to enable macro mode. Now that i know how to control the motor it is just the fun part left with making the grinder :slight_smile:

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I am not sure how to fix this windows pop up. There is no way to use the button in QGC until we can disable Windows from stealing the input.

https://github.com/bluerobotics/qgroundcontrol/issues/141

I’m interested to know what you want to do with the grinder? From what I understand, holding a rock solid position and having the horsepower to push back against the grinder wouldn’t be possible to achieve.

Hi @gcelec
My plan is to be able to cut ropes and other minor things with. I have been working with wrov for 20 years and my experience is that a grinder can be quite usefull. I recieved my M200 yesterday so as soon as i am ready i will test it and share how it performed.

That sounds like a fun project. I look forward to seeing the results.