Accelerometer functions

[RJohnston]

I noticed there are GetVelocity and GetDistance functions in the library that are not documented, and if I call them (int GetDistance(unsigned char port) assumed for example), the values are always increasing even though the GetAcceleration values appear to be read perfectly fine.

Brad, please provide the docs for how to use these functions. I have initialized and started the accelerometer in question.

Thank you Brad, WPILib is working great for our team and has certainly simplified teaching the students how to program the robot and teach them C at the same time.

[BradAMiller]

Originally Posted by RJohnston

I noticed there are GetVelocity and GetDistance functions in the library that are not documented, and if I call them (int GetDistance(unsigned char port) assumed for example), the values are always increasing even though the GetAcceleration values appear to be read perfectly fine.

Brad, please provide the docs for how to use these functions. I have initialized and started the accelerometer in question.

Thank you Brad, WPILib is working great for our team and has certainly simplified teaching the students how to program the robot and teach them C at the same time.

I tried very quickly to make those work, but there was too much error accumulation doing the integration and double integration. So the functions should have been removed, but it never happened. You're welcome to play with it, but I wouldn't count on getting usable data. Sorry about the confusion.

I think to really work it needs some more serious filtering to get reliable numbers.

[RJohnston]

Thank you for looking into it. As time is short, we will have to stick with a gear tooth sensor for now. Too bad, it would have been an interesting application for data collection on the robot's movement as well.

Thank you for the effort though.

[dgitz]

Did this ever get looked into more? Where can I download these functions? I don't have WPilib, just MPlab. I have some experience with Kalman filters, and could take a look at this to get working better.