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I am using the standard tools and setup to make a Raspberry Pi robot buggy: 2 Miniature Brushless DC Motor 3 to 6V 2 Wheels Raspberry Pi L298N Motor Driver( with its battery pack connected)

I have done all the setup and have connected everything nicely. When I program the wheels to move forward while they are on the floor, they stay stationary. However, when I hold my buggy in my hands and program the wheels to move, they move just fine. Thinking this was a power problem, I set the speed of the wheels from 'self.forward( 0.5)' to 'self.forward( 0.7) ' but I find out that after a while the wheels stop turning and the led light on the driver board goes out. What do you think is happening?

Milliways
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Sathesh Previn
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  • Ah, let me see. If the wheels turn happily when held in you hand (floating in air) but stay still on floor (which has friction for wheels to overcome), then it is very likely that your battery is running out and becomes too weak to turn the motors. Let me suggest a couple of troubleshooting tricks: (1) If you are turning two wheels at the same time, then try again for just one wheel, as two wheels need more force than one wheel, (2) Use a multi-meter to measure the battery pack output. It might be dropping from 6V to 5V or evening less. / to continue, ... – tlfong01 Mar 02 '20 at 09:57
  • If the above two tricks don't work, or you don't have a multi-meter, let me know and I would suggest more tricks. Cheers. – tlfong01 Mar 02 '20 at 09:58
  • You might have not set the connect/disconnect jumper of voltage regulator correctly, thus wasting battery power energy pack if voltage too high (> 6V), or if power pack already low, say less than 5V, will drop even lower after regulation. You might like to give me a link or a photo so I can guess if it is indeed the wrong regulator jumper setting problem. Or you can check out the following posts to see if your have other problems. (1) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/99460/rpi-gpiozero-l298n-dc-motor-driver-problem, / to continue, ... – tlfong01 Mar 02 '20 at 10:12
  • (2) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/104365/rpi4b-can-control-either-one-of-two-l298n-modules-each-driving-two-motors-but (3) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/98513/program-my-robot-with-python (4) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/96515/why-dont-my-motors-rotate (5) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/96258/how-can-rpi-python-control-motor-drivers-l293d-or-l298n/96332#96332. Cheeers. – tlfong01 Mar 02 '20 at 10:12
  • If you know more or less what does a voltage regulator in the L298N do, you might like to read the schematic of my answer to the following question: (5) https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/96258/how-can-rpi-python-control-motor-drivers-l293d-or-l298n. Try to guess how the jumper J8 works. PS - There are a couple of L298N modules, so my suggestion might not work for your module. – tlfong01 Mar 02 '20 at 10:20

1 Answers1

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The batteries are not supplying enough power.

The motors spinning with no load but stopping under load is a symptom.

The power LED going off after a few seconds of load is a symptom.

joan
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