[davidthefat]

Yes: the encoder.start()... 3 programmers literally spent 3 hours trying to figure that out... But it turned out that we also wired it up all wrong because I am an idiot... But the team captain said my soldering was pretty good.

Here are the current revisions of our code: you will be surprised how long I had to fight to get the other programmers to agree on using arrays... They thought arrays will just complicate things. Now since I was the lead programmer, I pretty much said "I am doing it" and after I did it, they liked it.... -__-;;

BTW the DataStructure is abridged; I only included the encoder stuff and took the rest out.

CVEncoder.java:

package edu.wpi.first.wpilibj.Robot2011.Perceive;

import edu.wpi.first.wpilibj.Encoder;
import edu.wpi.first.wpilibj.Robot2011.DataStructure;

/**
 *
 * @author Robotics2011
 */
public class CVEncoder
{
    private Encoder spin[];
    private int numOfEncoders;

    public CVEncoder(int n)//takes in number of encoders
    {
        numOfEncoders = n;
        if(numOfEncoders > 8)
        {
            numOfEncoders = 8;
        }
        else if(numOfEncoders < 0)
        {
            numOfEncoders = 0;
        }

        spin = new Encoder[numOfEncoders];
        int counter = 1;
        for(int i = 0; i < numOfEncoders; i ++)
        {
            spin[i] = new Encoder(i + counter, i + counter + 1);
            counter ++;
        }
        for(int i = 0; i < numOfEncoders; i ++)
        {
            spin[i].start();//took 3 hours to figure this out, but electronics was still at fault
        }
    }

    public void setRotation(double circumference, int c)//to caculate rate and dist; circumference in feet
    {
        spin[c].setDistancePerPulse(circumference / 360.0);//cirumference divided by 360 degrees [per pulse]
    }
    //rate - ft/s
    //dist - ft
    //direction - 1 is forward, -1 if backward
    public void update(DataStructure dat)//update inhited privates with dist, dir, and rate
    {
        for(int num = 0; num < numOfEncoders; num ++)
        {
            //Direction formatting
            double direction = 0;
            if(spin[num].getStopped() == false && spin[num].getDirection() == true)//allegedly, Encoder class returns negative int for forward
                direction = 1.0;
            else if(spin[num].getStopped() == false && spin[num].getDirection() == false)
                direction = -1.0;
            dat.setDirection(num, direction);
            dat.setDistance(num, spin[num].getDistance());
            dat.setRate(num, spin[num].getRate());
            dat.setStopped(num, spin[num].getStopped());
            dat.setPulses(num, spin[num].get());
        }
    }
    public void neutralize(DataStructure dat)
    {
        for(int num = 0; num < numOfEncoders; num ++)
        {
            spin[num].stop();
            spin[num].start();
            spin[num].reset();
        }
        update(dat);
    }
    public int numberOfEncoders()
    {
        return numOfEncoders;
    }
}

DataStructure.java:

package edu.wpi.first.wpilibj.Robot2011;
/**
 *
 * @author Robotics2011
 */
public class DataStructure
{
    //Encoder Variables
    private int numEncoders;//set number of encoders
    private double rate[];
    private double distance[];
    private double direction[];
    private double pulses[];
    private boolean stopped[];

  public DataStructure()
    {
        //Setting Encoder Variables to 0
        numEncoders = 0;
    }
public void constructEncoders(int num)
    {
        numEncoders = num;
        rate = new double[numEncoders];
        distance = new double[numEncoders];
        direction = new double[numEncoders];
        pulses = new double[numEncoders];
        stopped = new boolean[numEncoders];
        for(int i = 0; i < numEncoders; i ++)
        {
            rate[i] = 0.0;
            distance[i] = 0.0;
            direction[i] = 0.0;
            pulses[i] = 0.0;
            stopped[i] = true;
        }
    }

//Start Encoder Accessors and Manipulators
    public void setRate(int num, double x)
    {
        rate[num] = x;
    }
    public double getRate(int num)
    {
        return rate[num];
    }
    public void setDistance(int num, double d)
    {
        distance[num] = d;
    }
    public double getDistance(int num)
    {
        return distance[num];
    }
    public void setDirection(int num, double d)
    {
        direction[num] = d;
    }
    public double getDirection(int num)
    {
        return direction[num];
    }
    public void setPulses(int num, double i)
    {
        pulses[num] = i;
    }
    public double getPulses(int num)
    {
        return pulses[num];
    }
    public void setStopped(int num, boolean b)
    {
        stopped[num] = b;
    }
    public boolean getStopped(int num)
    {
        return stopped[num];
    }
    //End Encoder Accessors and Manipulators
}