Programming Motors

Modify your OpMode to add the motor related code. For now your completed servo code can be dragged to the side of your work space. You may alternatively choose to create a second program.

What is a Motor?

Just like servos, a motor is a form of actuator. You may picture a dozen different things when you think of a motor, from those used to spin the wheels of a car to the large turbines that allow a plane to fly. For our robots, we will be focusing on DC motors. These are a type of electrical motor that use direct current, or DC, to rotate and produce the mechanical force needed to move an attached mechanism.

For this tutorial, either a Core Hex Motor or HD Hex Motor may be used as long as they have been properly configured on the Driver Hub.

Most standard motors are able to continuously rotate in either direction with an adjustable speed or power. Some motors may also include a built in encoder, which allows them to move to a specified position, similar to a servo, or to collect data like the number of completed rotations!

Let's get Programming!

In the next few sections, we will be learning to program our motor to first move automatically in different directions then in response to our gamepad inputs. In our final section we will take a look at using telemetry with our motor's built in encoder.

Programming Motor Basics

Programming a Motor with a Gamepad

Programming Motor Telemetry

Below is a sneak peek of our full code:

    @Override
public void runOpMode() {
        control_Hub = hardwareMap.get(Blinker.class, "Control Hub");
        arm = hardwareMap.get(DcMotor.class, "arm");
        leftmotor = hardwareMap.get(DcMotor.class, "leftmotor");
        rightmotor = hardwareMap.get(DcMotor.class, "rightmotor");
        test_motor = hardwareMap.get(DcMotor.class, "test_motor");
        test_servo = hardwareMap.get(Servo.class, "test_servo");
        test_touch = hardwareMap.get(TouchSensor.class, "test_touch");
        
        test_servo.setPosition(0);

        telemetry.addData("Status", "Initialized");
        telemetry.update();
        // Wait for the game to start (driver presses PLAY)
        waitForStart();

        // run until the end of the match (driver presses STOP)
        while (opModeIsActive()) {
            test_motor.setPower(-this.gamepad1.left_stick_y);
            telemetry.addData("Motor Power", test_motor.getPower());
            telemetry.addData("Status", "Running");
            telemetry.update();

        }
    }