raspberry crashes by fast change of direction (4tronix Piconzero)

[thymjan]

I think this is also sort of a hardware issue, but maybe one can solve it with software:
If I draw the joystick fast forward/backward my raspberry pi zero w crashes and reboots.
If I'm driving forward, then stop and afterwards drive backward there is no problem.
So my idea is to implement a little delay (several milliseconds) when changing the direction.

Where would be the place to implement this?

[thymjan]

I've helped myself:
sudo nano /usr/local/lib/python3.4/dist-packages/picraftzero/providers/motor/piconzero.py

I changed "def set_speed(self, speed)" to this:

    def set_speed(self, speed):
        msg = "set_speed({}, {})".format(self.motor_id, speed)
        logger.debug(msg)
        if speed == self._last_speed or speed is None:
            return
        if ((speed > 0) and (self._last_speed < 0)) or ((speed < 0) and (self._last_speed > 0)):
            msg = "change direction ************************"
            logger.debug(msg)
            speed = 0
            sleep(0.1)
            pz.stop()
            sleep(0.3)
            self._last_speed = speed
            return
        self._last_speed = speed
        logger.info(msg)
        # TODO: scale -100..100 to -128..127
        speed = constrain(speed, -128, 127)
        pz.setMotor(self.motor_id, speed)

At this moment it's a quick an dirty implementation but I think it sort of works. I have to optimize the sleep timings a bit, but I have to charge my battery first.

[thymjan]

Did some homework:

        # TODO: scale -100..100 to -128..127
        logger.info("old speed: {}".format(speed))
        speed = int(255 * ((speed+100)/200) - 128)
        logger.info("new speed: {}".format(speed))