[rl1806]

I used the manual tuning method in 2011 when I programmed a crab drive system. The way I tuned the PID was I set all 3 values to 0 and then increased the “P” value until it oscillated around the set point. I then started increasing “I” until the oscillation settled down. For the crab drive system just using the “PI” was sufficient; for a flywheel you might need to put a small value in for “D” to smooth out the change in speed caused by firing a Frisbee.

I tuned the system completely by adjusting the values one at a time until I got to a system behave like I wanted it to. After about 2 hours, without using any of the advanced math, I was able to get the PID for both sides of the robot tuned in. The Wikipedia link I posted links to the section that describes how to tune the PID without math. Once you get a sense of how each value effects the system it becomes easier to tune it.

I came up with the following scenario after teaching myself how to tune the PID on the crab driver system:
A very simplified scenario of how PID works is a car is driving down the highway at 55 MPH and the driver wants to go 70 MPH. The “P” value would be how hard they step on the gas to accelerate; the greater the “P” value the harder they stop on the gas. The “I” value would be how quickly the driver changes the pressure on the accelerator as they approach 70 MPH; a larger value results in getting to 70 MPH quicker but overshooting 70 and having to slow down. Finally the “D” value would be how smoothly the driver corrects for the speed not being 70 MPH; a larger value means the driver is more likely to overshoot 70 MPH initially but the overall speed changes will be smoother and not bounce above and below 70 as much.
Hope this could help.