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USER MANUAL
BALL AND BEAM
©2015 Acrome Ltd., All rights reserved.
Acrome Ltd.
ITU ARI4 Science Park
Maslak, Istanbul
Turkey
info@acrome.net
Phone: +90 532 132 17 22
Fax: +90 212 285 25 94
Printed in Maslak, Istanbul

For more information on the solutions Acrome Ltd. offers, please visit the web site at:
http://www.acrome.net

This document and the software described in it are provided subject to a license agreement.
Neither the software nor this document may be used or copied except as specified under the
terms of that license agreement. All rights are reserved and no part may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Acrome Ltd.

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 Contents
1 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 System Description................................................................................................................. 4
2 COMPONENTS ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 RC Servo Motor (# 1) .............................................................................................................. 6
2.2 NI myRIO (# 3) ........................................................................................................................ 6
2.3 ACROME Power Distribution Box (# 4) .................................................................................. 7
3 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ......................................................................................................... 8
4 WIRING .......................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Cable Names........................................................................................................................... 9
4.2 Connections.......................................................................................................................... 10
5 SETTING UP THE SYSTEM ............................................................................................................ 11
5.1 Getting Started ..................................................................................................................... 11
5.2 Calibration ............................................................................................................................ 12
6 TROUBLESHOOTING .................................................................................................................... 19
6.1 Connection Open FPGA VI Reference.................................................................................. 19

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1 OVERVIEW
1.1 System Description

Ball and beam system consists of a beam on which a ball can be placed and free to move can
be seen in the Figure 1.1. Beam is connected to the base plate of the system over a cardan joint
with one degree of freedom. The Servo motor is connected to the beam over link with a rod
and ball joint. Potentiometer sensor sticks on the beam to measure the position of the ball.

Figure 1.1: ACROME Ball and Beam System

By controlling the servomotor, the angle of the beam can be adjusted to regulate the position
of the ball on the beam.

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2 COMPONENTS
All the main components “ACROME Ball and Beam” are numbered and can be seen in the Figure
2.1. The numbers and the names of elements are listed in the Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1: Descriptions and numbers of components

Numbers Description
1 RC Servo Motor
2 Potentiometer Sensor
3 myRIO
4 ACROME Power Distribution Box
5 Mechanics of Beam
6 Adapter

Figure 2.1: Components of Ball and Beam System

Figure 2.2: The Potentiometer

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2.1 RC Servo Motor (# 1)
RC servos are electromechanical devices that convert electrical signals to movement. They
provide simple and handy solutions to most control and robotic applications.

Figure 2.3: RC Servo Motor

2.2 NI myRIO (# 3)

myRIO has many ports and sensors on board including; analog inputs (AI), analog outputs (AO),
digital inputs and outputs (DIO), audio and power outputs, an accelerometer and LED’s. Also,
myRIO has a full size USB port that can be utilized as host and 802.11.bgn wireless module.

Figure 2.4: NI myRIO

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2.3 ACROME Power Distribution Box (# 4)
The RC servo motor, sensor (potentiometer) and myRIO connections are located on ACROME
power distribution box which is shown in Figure 2.5. It also has a RGB led and switch mode
regulators.

Figure 2.5: ACROME Power Distribution Box

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3 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
The Ball and Beam System has dimensions and parameters that are shown with α 𝑔, 𝐽𝑏 below.
These dimensions and parameters of the system will be used in the mathematical model.

Table 3.1: Dimensions and parameters of the system

Symbols Definition Value Unit

𝑳 Beam Length 0.5 [m]
𝒓𝑴 Motor Arm Length 0.0245 [m]
𝒓𝒃 Radius of the Ball 0.0175 [m]
𝒎𝒃 Mass of the Ball 0.175 [kg]
𝑱𝒃 Rotational Inertia of the Ball 0.00002143 [kg ∗ m2 ]
𝒈 Acceleration due to Gravity 9.81 [m/s2 ]
𝜶 Beam Angle (Variable) [degrees]
 Motor Angle (Variable) [degrees]

Figure 3.1: Free Body Diagram of Ball and Beam System

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4 WIRING
4.1 Cable Names

Cables which are used in the ball and beam system are defined and denominated as seen in
Table 4.1 below.

Table 4.1: Cable Descriptions

Cable Names View of the Cables Definitions

This cable provides the

1. Usb Cable connection between PC and
myRİO

Output power of the

distribution box is
2. myRIO Power Cable connected to myRIO with
this cable in order to
provide power.

This cable connects RC

3. RC Servo Motor Cable servo motor to power
distribution box to
transmits PWM waves.

This cable transmits signals

4. Digital I/O Cable between myRIO and power
distribution box.

This cable connects

potentiometer to power
5. Potentiometer Cable distribution box in order to
transmit the position data
of the ball to myRIO.

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4.2 Connections

In order to use the system, all cables mentioned above should be connected properly. All the
essential connections among the components are shown in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: Ball and Beam System Connections

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5 SETTING UP THE SYSTEM
5.1 Getting Started

After the connections are carefully realized, copy "Ball and Beam Project" folder located under
ACROME BB CD-ROM under C:\. And open the "Ball and Beam Project" in LabVIEW.

Figure 5.1: "Ball and Beam Project" Window

1. After wiring and the connection process, connect myRIO to a USB port of your computer.
2. Power up myRIO.
3. Connect to myRIO over "Ball and Beam Project".

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5.2 Calibration

1. Place the ball on the beam as it is seen in Figure 5.2 and run “Ball and Beam
Calibration.vi”.

Figure 5.2: Place of the Ball on the Beam

2. After running the VI and placing the ball, the front panel of the VI should look like Figure
5.3. You should see in "2D Visualization of Ball and Beam System" a red circle and a
yellow circle.
The yellow circle is the position of the ball sensed from the potentiometer. The red circle is the
set position of the center of the beam.

Figure 5.3: 2D Visualization of Ball and Beam System

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 3. If the ball beam system is in the “Action” mode by clicking ”ACTION” button on the left
side of the VI, the beam tries to move the ball to the set position.

In Figure 5.4, on the left hand side you can see the predefined set points to calibrate the ball
positions. There are in total three calibration points, all in the x-direction. The Nomenclature of
the points are X-Up, X-Center and X-Down respectively.

Figure 5.4: Front Panel of the “Ball and Beam Calibration.vi”

4. Select the calibration point with the name "X Center". Decrease or increase the "X
Center" parameter according to Figure 5.5. Until the yellow ball is in the inner area of
the red circle, "X Center" parameter should be changed. After the ball is in the right
position, shift the ball with your hands a couple of times in different directions to make
sure the position of the yellow circle is in the same level with the red circle. If not,
change the "X Center" parameter accordingly.

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 Figure 5.5: Calibration of Setpoint X Center

Figure 5.6: Adjusted X Center Parameter

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 5. Select the calibration point with name “X Up” and observe where the ball position is
(Figure 5.7).

Figure 5.7: Calibration of Setpoint X Up

Decrease or increase the "X Up" parameter according to Figure 5.7 until the yellow ball is in the
inner area of the red circle. After the ball is in the right position, shift the ball with your hands
a couple of times in different directions to make sure the position of the yellow circle is in the
same level with the red circle. If not, change the "X Up" parameter accordingly.

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 Figure 5.8: Adjusted X Up Parameter

6. Select the calibration point with the name "X Down". As you have obtained the "X Up"
parameter, decrease or increase the "X Down" parameter according to Figure 5.9.
Repeat the steps you did in the previous calibration point. After adjusting the "X Down"
parameter, the yellow circle has to be located in the same level, as you can see in Figure
5.10. After the ball is in the right position, shift the ball with your hands a couple of
times in different directions to make sure the position of the yellow circle is in the same
level with the red circle. If not, change the "X Down" parameter accordingly.

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 Figure 5.9: Calibration of Setpoint X Down

Figure 5.10: Adjusted X Down Parameter

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 7. After adjusting the "X Down" parameter, click the "Calibrate" button to calibrate the
table according to the adjusted parameters above. After clicking "Calibrate" button,
both yellow circle and red circle have to be located in the middle of the beam and yellow
circle has to be located in the inner area of the red circle (Figure 5.11). If so, calibration
routine is finished successfully.

Figüre 5.11: Finished Calibration

8. After the calibration process is completed, shift the ball with your hands a couple of
times in different directions to make sure the position of the yellow circle is in the same
area in the red circle.

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6 TROUBLESHOOTING
6.1 Connection Open FPGA VI Reference
1. If you have the following error list, you must specify a bitfile for FPGA Module. First,
Click the "Show Error" button.

Figure 6.1: "Error List" Window

2. Right-click the "Open FPGA Reference" function (Figure 6.2). This should be out of the
loop at the beginning of the program. Choose the "Configure Open FPGA VI Reference".

Figure 6.2: "Open FPGA Reference" Function

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 Figure 6.3: "Open FPGA Reference" Function

3. Select the bitfile Option. Browse through "FPGA Bitfiles" in project folder to the bitfile.
This step is shown in Figure 6.4. Then, click the "OK" button.

Figure 6.4: "Configure Open FPGA VI Reference" Dialog Box

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 4. Now, turn back the block diagram again. Right-click the "Open FPGA Reference"
function’s resource name input (Figure 6.5). Choose "Create>>Constant".

Figure 6.5: "Open FPGA Reference" Function

5. Finally, select “RIO0” from the combo box as seen in Figure 6.6.

Figure 6.6: "Open FPGA Reference" Function with Resource Name

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ACROME Robotik Mekatronik Sistemleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. Şti.

İTÜ Ayazağa Kampüsü

Koru Yolu ARI 4 Binası B204

For further information on ACROME equipment please contact.

Website: http://www.acrome.net/

e-mail: info@acrome.net

Telephone: 0212 807 0456