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first95 / FRC2020

Code base for 2020 robot, initialized with develop branch of 2019 repo.
MIT License
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Figure out how using DC brushless motors changes our code approach #10

Closed lindsayvallen closed 4 years ago

lindsayvallen commented 5 years ago

From the mechanical side of the team, there's interest in using these this season. We need to figure out how/if they would change our overall software strategy and how they affect some of the details of the motor and drivebase implementations. For reference, we have been using CIM motors and Talon motor controllers, and now we're looking at using Neo brushless motors and Spark Max Motor controllers

lindsayvallen commented 5 years ago

The SparkMax Java API is here and some Java examples with it are here. The examples look like they may be complete enough to load them on a robot to try them out for different kinds of driving (e.g. tank drive, position-based closed loop control, velocity-based closed loop control, etc.)

lindsayvallen commented 5 years ago

Video of pushing match between two seemingly identical robots other than one having 2 CIMs and the other having 2 Neos: https://www.reddit.com/r/FRC/comments/9xsdky/11_pushing_match_neo_blue_vs_cim_red/

Thread on Spark MAX (only motor controller that works with Neos, which are the only FIRST-approved brushless motors): https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/spark-max-thoughts/355353 Spark MAX vs. Talon https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/talon-srx-vs-spark-max/341472

lindsayvallen commented 5 years ago

When we get these motors and motor controllers, we should recruit Jason to help cloning, building, and pushing the example code to the motors (or robot, if installed there) to test it. The sample code is very simple, i.e. just a Main.java and Robot.java, so is a great place for a person newer to code to start from. @jwalthour

For initial testing, I think it would be great to test a single motor/controller pair with the motor affixed to a board or other stationary surface to see how the basics of it work, e.g. get it to rotate in each direction, change speed, etc.

lindsayvallen commented 4 years ago

FYI @jwalthour there's info in this issue on the SparkMax.

lindsayvallen commented 4 years ago

We're effectively doing this with Bread Bot so this issue is somewhat of a duplicate but I'm leaving it open for easy reference to the Spark Max and Neo info.