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Unread 04-09-2005, 21:40
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Alan Anderson Alan Anderson is offline
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Re: Testing and Cause of Failure for Encoders and Hall Effect sensors

We had a "diagnostic" mode in our software this year. With the proper switch activated, some of the OI LEDs show the direction of rotation of the three encoders we used on the robot. That sort of simple diagnostic feedback is something your programmer(s) will have to provide if they want to quickly eliminate hardware as a potential problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimCraig
As an aside, I was trying to test just the encoder unit out of the robot since I thought it would be easier. I slid a sheet of paper into the slot and saw nothing. However, the support guy said the HEDS detector they use will only register the lines on the disk and not show the paper. I'm also a mechanical also so I'm not up on how this works. You'd think breaking the beam is breaking the beam.
White paper doesn't completely block the light getting to the sensor. It gets illuminated, and the sensor detects the diffuse light coming from it. You'd have to put something totally opaque there, like a bit of electrical tape or foil, before the detector will stop seeing anything.