Calibrating Victors

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by gwross

Apparently, you are now referring back to your earlier post:
That certainly wasn't apparent from the question I was trying to answer:

At any rate, I know of no reason why a Victor would reset itself. It seems unlikely that the procedure I cited from the Users Manual could have been executed inadvertently. Has anyone else witnessed a Victor inexplicably losing its calibration?

Yes, I have. It's a pretty subtle thing, and I suspect that it was more of a slow process. To describe the situation- at the start of the season, all the victors were calibrated with out a problem. Perhaps halfway through the season, I noticed that the bot was veering more to the one side then it had previously. Assuming that it was one of the motors/drive train deteriorating, I didn't mention it to the pit crew who had enough on their hands. I was able to deal with it on the field well enough, so I let it go. After a few match's, it worsened to the point that it was bad enough that I felt it was hurting our performance. So on a whim, I had the victors recalibrated while I waited for the pitcrew to finish work on something else. With out changing anything else, the problem disappeared.

So, it may have been the victor loosing calibration or just as likely, the joystick 'drifting' (it was not the trim). Perhaps a good jolt can cause the pots to 'slip'?

Regardless, there is no harm in calibrating, assuming you do it correctly, and no good reason not to. There is a significant difference between joysticks, and I see no reason why that should have to be compensated in programming or by the driver when the victor can be matched to each stick.

-Andy A.