I've tried a pause, nap 7 and sleep 2 as the very first command and that has not solved it. Thanks for the try, though.Have you tried a pause at the beginning of the program?
Try a 5 second pause first and if that fixes it, reduce it in steps until you are happy with the minimum pause that is stable.
I did know that I was cutting it close, but I don't have enough room for a larger battery pack. I guess I need to figure out another way to get more headroom. I have been thinking about going over to a simple switcher like the LM2596. That won't help me with the headroom, but it'd probably be a lot more stable than a 7805.1. The 7.2 volt battery is just barely enough for the 7805. The minimum I/O differential for this regulator is 2 volts. If your startup current pulls your battery voltage down even a littly bit, you will lose regulation of the +5v output.
I have a 100uf from 1 to 2, and a 47uf from 3 to 2, and they are .2" away from the regulator. They are both electrolytic, should I add some ceramic caps to catch the high frequencies also? I guess it couldn't hurt.2. There should be two small capacitors on the 7805 pins. A 0.1 uF to 1.0uF capacitor from pin 1 to pin 2, and a 0.1uf capacitor from pin3 to pin 2. These should be as close to the 7805 as possible. These are there to prevent oscillation of the regulator.
I will have to try that! Thanks for the tip.From my Z80 days, you can hold the PICAXE chip in the reset state while the supply stabilizes by adding a capacitor from the reset input to ground. In addition to the external resistor, there is also an internal weak pullup resistor (~10K) to Vcc on the reset input. With a 100K external reset resistor and a 47uF reset cap, the PICAXE startup is delayed about 1 sec on power up. Adjust delay to suit your application. I tested this on a 28X1 with a 220uf cap and 100K resistor and got a 4 second delay.
SW1 and SW2 are 2 separate switches.Are sw1 and sw2 separate switches or are they two poles of the same switch?
I have tried it both with and without thw 220uF on the output and it has made no difference.If the same switch then as the circuit shows 267uF on the output of the regulator, this will have to be charged on startup along with all the other components coming up to speed and causing a sag on the 5v supply circuit voltage = a short delay - have you tried the circuit with the required 0.1uf and without the 220uF?
If switches are separate what happens if you power up everything else first with sw1 then turn on sw2 later - do you still have the problem?
Yes, I do have caps. 1 per lead to the motor's case.Do the motors have suppression caps on them? Either between the two leads, or even better two caps, each from the lead to the metal case.
