CAN Jaguar Synchronous Updates??

[Bryscus]

Hi Guys,

I've been emailing back and forth with Joe Hershberger. For those of you who don't know, he's the one writing the CAN code to control the Jaguars. He's a smart guy and should probably get a raise!

There don't seem to be too many teams taking to the CAN interface just yet, but I must say it has great potential (especially with its built-in closed-loop control system!). At this point, Joe has implemented all the close-loop functionality of the code and more, but there is one feature that may not be added based on its demand.

The Jaguars have the ability to store their next commands and then update as a group. Basically what happens, is you send the next command and then assign the Jaguar to a group. When you've assigned all the commands, you send the Synchronous Update command at which time each Jag implements its stored command simultaneously.

So the question is: Is it worth it for Joe to implement this, or is it a waste of time? The benefits could be negligible since the reaction times of the motors is pretty long (comparatively). This could however, lead to the ability to drive straighter or start two motors simultaneously (say for cocking a kicking mechanism).

The point of this post is to gauge the interest of this feature. Please reply with yay's or nay's. Thanks.

- Bryce

P.S. While I am for this addition, the code base for adding this function has already been written. It wouldn't be too hard for a few teams to implement this on their own.

[DonRotolo]

Nice to have, but not a must have.
I also agree, just reading your explanation of 'what' tells me 'how', so need be we can do it ourselves. The rest is just details.

[imac256]

I think it would be a nice feature, but again not required. It would make it nicer to control the two motors in one gearbox that our drivebase team wants.

-Ian

[duane]

We are getting started using CAN. We have very high hopes for controlling the robot.

We have several systems that have dual motor systems. I think this feature could prove quite useful. I would like to see the functionality added to see how it works.