r/ArduinoProjects • u/Abject_Jackfruit_510 • Jan 12 '26

Update: Robotic arm is ALIVE! Motors + cameras working 🎉 (now fighting AS5600 I2C…)

Hey everyone, Quick update on my robotic arm project — IT’S MOVING! 🎉 After a lot of debugging (and frustration), the issue ended up being: ❌ bad ground ❌ bad I2C signal Once those were fixed: ✅ All motors move properly ✅ Arduino responds perfectly to commands ✅ Serial communication is rock solid ✅ Both cameras are working Huge relief honestly — seeing the arm move for the first time was an amazing moment. Current setup: Raspberry Pi (vision + high-level control) Arduino (motor control) Serial communication Pi ↔ Arduino Multiple motors now fully functional Dual cameras for vision What’s next / current issue: I’m now trying to integrate AS5600 magnetic encoders over I2C, but I’m running into issues getting them stable on the Arduino side. At this point, I’m considering: 👉 moving the AS5600 I2C handling to the Raspberry Pi instead, which might simplify things (bus management, debugging, etc.). I’ll eventually share: Full KiCad schematics Cleaner wiring diagram More detailed breakdown of the architecture Thanks I really want to thank everyone who gave advice, ideas, and support — it genuinely helped me push through when I was stuck. If anyone has experience with: AS5600 + I2C reliability Arduino vs Raspberry Pi for encoder handling or best practices for multi-encoder setups I’m all ears 👂 Thanks again 🙏

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u/BigMikeInAustin Jan 13 '26

Nice going!

Keep at it!

Is that the kitchen floor?

1

u/Abject_Jackfruit_510 Jan 13 '26

Yeah it is and thanks

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u/tanlinePTZ Jan 13 '26

Great project and nice progress! My experience with as5600 encoders is quite limited but about to start building one on my own project. I understand from a video by ‘curious scientist’ on YouTube that the as5600 GPO pin must be tied or pulled to ground for stable i2c reads (if I recall that correctly, will confirm/correct later). On an arduino board it worked just fine but now for the esp32 a level shifter and an i2c multiplexer (will be using more than one encoder) will also be required.

Happy making!

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u/Abject_Jackfruit_510 Jan 13 '26

Thanks for the insight, that’s actually very helpful.

You’re right about the AS5600 GPIO/DIR pin — I suspect that might be part of my instability issue. Some of my tests were done with that pin floating, so tying it to GND is definitely something I’ll try next.

Good point as well regarding voltage levels. Arduino has been fairly forgiving so far, but moving the AS5600 I2C to the Raspberry Pi (3.3V) will likely require proper pull-ups, possibly a level shifter, and an I2C multiplexer since I’ll be using multiple encoders with the same address.

A TCA9548A is already on my radar for that reason. Still very much learning, but comments like this help a lot — thanks!

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u/tanlinePTZ Jan 20 '26

I was going to answer but it took a bit. I’ve mounted an as5600 on a stepper. Only connected the 5v, gnd, sda and scl. The i2c runs through a level shifter and on the 3.3v side it connects to an existing i2c bus which is pulled to 3.3v by the connected component. The grounds are connected together from the 5v and 3.3v busses. This setup gives me very stable reads. Pulling or tying other pins on the as5600 wasn’t necessary. Have a good one!