Advantage of CAN?

[otherguy]

Originally Posted by nickpeq

I can't seem to find much information on CAN Jaguars. I bet the information has been right in front of me, but it's about time for me to ask for help.
I've only worked with PWM Jaguars so far. I'd like to know what advantages CAN has over PWM. Do I have to use CAN to use Encoders? I see that the javadocs show a getRate() method for the Encoder class. Can I use that just as effectively without switching over to CAN?

No you don't need to use CAN to use encoders. Using CAN would allow you to wire your encoders directly into your Jaguar instead of the cRIO.

If you plan on using any of the closed loop control features of the Jags, make sure you do your homework up front... people haven't had the best luck getting reliable closed loop control out of the Jags. [read more]

For more info on CAN check out my team's tutorial on the subject:
team2168.org/index.php/resources/electrical/210-can-jaguars