Calculating Target Position
Last updated
Last updated
In the initial introduction to run to position, you worked through the calculations needed to convert the ticks per rotation of a motor into ticks per mm moved. Now we want to focus on how to convert ticks per rotation of the motor to ticks per degree moved. From the previous section you should have a rough estimate of the amount of ticks you need to get to the 90 degree position. The goal of this section is to work through how to get a more exact position.
To start you will need some of the same variables we used in Encoder Navigation:
Recall, that ticks per revolution of the encoder shaft is different than the ticks per revolution of the shaft that is controlling a mechanism. We saw this in the Encoder Navigation section when the ticks per revolution at the motor was different from the ticks per revolution of the wheel. As motion is transmitted from a motor to a mechanism, the resolution of the encoder ticks changes.
For more information on the effect of motion transmission across a mechanism check out the Compound Gearing section.
The amount of ticks per revolution of the encoder shaft is dependent on the motor and encoder. Manufacturers of motors with built-in encoders will have information on the amount of ticks per revolution.
Visit the manufacturers website for your motor or encoders for more information on encoder counts. For HD Hex Motors or Core Hex Motors visit the Motor documentation.
In the Core Hex Motor specifications there are two different Encoder Counts per Revolution numbers:
At the motor - 4 counts/revolution
At the output - 288 counts/revolution
At the motor is the number of encoder counts on the shaft that encoder is on. This number is equivalent to the 28 counts per revolution we used for the HD Hex Motor. The 288 counts "at the output" accounts for the change in resolution after the motion is transmitted from the motor to the built in 72:1 gearbox. Lets use the 288 as ticks per revolution so that we do not have to account for the gearbox in our total gear reduction variable.
Since we built the the gear reduction from the motor gearbox into the ticks per revolution the main focus of this section is calculating the gear reduction of the arm joint. The motor shaft drives a 45 tooth gear that transmits motion to a 125 tooth gear. The total gear ratio is 125T:45T. To calculate the gear reduction for this gear train, we can simply divide 125 by 45.
To summarize, for the Class Bot V2 the following information is true:
Now that we have this information lets create two constant variables:
COUNTS_PER_MOTOR_REV
GEAR_REDUCTION
The common naming convention for constant variables is known as CONSTANT_CASE, where the variable name is in all caps and words are separated by and underscore.
Add the COUNTS_PER_MOTOR_REV
and GEAR_REDUCTION
variables to the op mode beneath where the hardware variables are created.
Now that these two variables have been defined, we can use them to calculate two other variables: the amount of encoder counts per rotation of the 125T driven gear and the number of counts per degree moved.
Calculating counts per revolution of the 125T gear (or COUNTS_PER_GEAR_REV
)is the same formula used in Converting Encoder Ticks for ourCOUNTS_PER_WHEEL_REV
variable. So to get this variable we can multipleCOUNTS_PER_MOTOR_REV
by GEAR_REDUCTION
.
To calculate the number of counts per degree or moved or COUNTS_PER_DEGREE
divide the COUNTS_PER_GEAR_REV
variable by 360.
Add both these variables to the op mode.
Finally we need to create a non-constant variable that will act as our position. Create a variable called armPosition
above the waitForStart();
command.
Add this variable to the if(gaempad1.dpad_up)
section of the Target Position if/else if
statement, as this section dictates the 90 degree position. To get to the 90 degree position, the arm needs to move roughly 45 degrees. Set arm position equal to COUNTS_PER_DEGREE
times 45.
Recall that setTargetPosition()
requires an integer to be its parameter. When defining armPosition
remember to add the line (int)
in front of the double variable. However, you need to be cautious of potential rounding errors. Since COUNTS_PER_MM
is part of an equation it is recommended that you convert to an integer after the result of the equation is found.
Set target position to armPostion
.
We could change what armPosition
is equal to in the gamepad1.dpad_down
portion of the if/else if
statement such as:
In this case we would consistently redefine armPosition
to match the needs of whatever positions we want to create. Since our only two positions at the moment are our starting position and our 90 degree position it isn't necessary However, it is a good practice to create a variable in situations like this. If we want to add another position later, we can easily edit the variable to fit our needs.
Ticks per revolution
288 ticks
Total gear reduction
2.777778