[Yaaarc] robotics - H-bridges -wheelchair motors

[Keith Mc. (Route-To YAR)]

Ran Ong <ongrb at msn.com> wrote:
> i want to build a remote controlled personal rover using wheelchair motors.
> this is for a hobby.
> What i have right now
> 
> complete working powered wheelchair : jazzy 1120
> - a pair of 24 volt pride mobility motors (HT) 
> - pride dynamics motor controller (complete)
> others:
> 2 channel remote controller
>  
> What kind of solution I'm looking for:
> 
> There are available motor controller that can be interface to 
> wheelchair motors and connect an RC module (servo controller). 
> I've see one solutions from www.roboteq.com using their ax3500 
> or ax2500 module to interface both a PC or RC module attached to it.
> from this base you can add other robotics sensors and monitors...
> 
> Now just wondering if there are people in this list  using a different 
> solution as the roboteq modules are expensive.

How's your electronics background?

Personally, since this for hobby and you already have some controllers 
capable of driving the motors (they came with the wheelchair), *IF* 
you're comfortable with it my first thought would be to keep the original 
controllers and trying to hack an interface to them to allow it to be 
driven via RC.  Tap in either (a) at the joystick connector level, or 
(b) tie into the controller just *before* the H-bridge's driver amps.
(It''s often not too difficult to reverse engineer the joystick handles, 
and the H-bridge itself.)

That may turn out to be a lot cheaper than replacing the pair of controllers.

- Keith Mc.