How to program H/Slide drive in labview?

[SaltyPotato]

We just decided to go with an slide drive train, with one motor in the middle and one motor at each corner of the chassis. Unfortunately we have no idea how to do that. Do we just bind the middle motor to the x-axis of one of the joysticks or...?

Side note we are using 2 Logitech joysticks for a tank drive setup.

[Ether]

What is the diameter and gear ratio for the center wheel?

[SaltyPotato]

The diameter is 8 inches, and we haven't decided on a gear ratio, but does that have any influence on how you program the slide drive system?

[Skyehawk]

You may want to consider using both of the X axes of your joysticks so you don't accidentally strafe. You can use the in range and coerce to accomplish this.

[Ether]

The diameter is 8 inches, and we haven't decided on a gear ratio, but does that have any influence on how you program the slide drive system?

It has a tremendous influence on whether the slide will do what you want, and no amount of programming can fix it if it's not right.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1426228#post1426228

[burde1jb]

Thanks for all the help so far. FWIW, the gear ratio for the middle wheel will be through this gearbox (http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/motion/gearboxes/wcp-ss.html) with a 12 tooth pinion and then a 60:14 second stage. This results in a 17.85:1 overall reduction.

That gives us a Free Speed of (according to the JVN calculator) 12.12 ft/s and an adjusted speed (at 120 lbs) of 9.82 ft/s. Speedy, we know. :)

We are powering the middle wheel with 3 MiniCims.

Any help with the code would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!