PLEASE HELP!! Need help programming arm??

[JamesBrown]

I am going to have to agree with Mike on this one, PID (or even PD) is a bit much, especially since he said he wasn't a programmer. Now before you tell me how much better off you are with PID think about how long it takes for you to tune your loops, now realize that he doesn't have the robot, probably until competition. There is almost no chance that he will be able to get the robot to himself for long enough to get every thing working, especially with it being his first try.

I would reccomend using a pot instead of an encoder, they are much easier to work with.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

I would reccomend using a pot instead of an encoder, they are much easier to work with.

Amir:
You understand that the encoder generates pulses as the arm moves, whereas a pot will provide an analog voltage that corresponds to the position of the arm? If you use the encoder, the software will need to update the position of the arm as pulses are detected. With a pot, each time you read the analog port it is connected to, you get instantaneous position data. This is why teams generally use pots on arms rather than encoders.