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Re: [FTC]: Motors
I don't have a kit but last time I looked at the parts list, it contained:
- 4 of the 12V DC motors.
- 2 motor encoders for these motors
- 1 HiTechnic motor controller equipped with two motor control outputs and two motor encoder inputs.
One way to control four 12V motors with one HiTechnic controller is to attach two motors to one output. This is what many teams did for the pilot trial. Only equip one of the motors with an encoder and connect it to the appropriate input on the controller.
A second way to control four motors is to purchase a second HiTechnic controller. There was discussion about allowing purchase of a second HiTechnic controller although I'm not sure how this finally worked out. Currently I can't find them for sale on the web.
All three software programming environments should work whether or not the motors are actually equipped with encoders. If not equipped, then some of the more power motor commands -- e.g. "move motor 5000 encoder counts", "move motor at precise speed using feedback from encoder" -- are lost.
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