Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

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Soelen
 
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Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by Soelen »

Hello folks,

well how to explain, first of all the Motorshield rocks and works like it should if you plugin the Motorshield on the Arduino. : )

But sadly as soon as you are trying the Motorshield with the sparkfuns Wifishield

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9954

The motorshield just starting to make silly things like the motor which is connected is spinning in one direction, unlimited.

So no clue what should do right now D: Should I post the sourcecode here or does anyone already knows what the issue is? Thanks in advance!

Soelen

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It sounds like you have a pin conflict between the shields. Check the sticky post at the top of this forum for a list of pins used by the motor shield. If the WiFi shield is using some of the same pins, it could cause unpredictable motor behavior.

Soelen
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:43 pm

Re: Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by Soelen »

Hola it's me again, sorry for the late answer.

I couldn't believe what adafruit_support said so I started to investigate some time to see if it is really a pin conflict between shields.

First of all, thanks a lot for the link adafruit_support, that helped out! The link provides which pins Motorshield is using; those are:

Digital pin 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, so only 2 and 13 are available.

The sparkfun Wifishield using:

9, 10, 11, 12, 13; a lot pins available but seems like there really is a conflict between those shields.

So my next step was to find some alternatives. The following link is an example how to use the L293D motor chip on the arduino; the same chip as on the Motorshield. :) More important this turoial is just using 4 pins!

http://luckylarry.co.uk/arduino-project ... 293d-chip/

It took me some time to get the right materials, but today I really have to say it was an pin conflict after all. So I dont see any other way as to built an own motorshield now D:

Nevertheless I'm very happy I found the issue and were able to do something about it, thanks adafruit_support! =D

I just posted this message in case someone has the same problem as I had :P

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The MotorShield has 2 L293D's as well as 2 servo ports. That explains why more than 4 pins are used. But the pins are only used if you have motors connected to those ports. Read the sticky post carefully. :D

Soelen
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:43 pm

Re: Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by Soelen »

well no matter which motor port I use, it just dont want to work like it should. D:

Is there a possibility to deactivate the wifishield for a certain amount of time so the motorshield could do his job?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Motorshield does not work with Wifishield together

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

That depends on the nature of the pin conflicts. If one shield needs the pin to be in input mode and the other needs it in output mode, you will need to reset the pin mode when switching between them.

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