Drive Control, Wheel Speed Calibration, and Rapid Speed Changes

[7-11number1]

Today has not been a good day. Two of our brand new Victor Speed Controllers exploded in flames (yes they were wired correctly) and an Andy Mark Tough box locked up.

However, these are minor setbacks. I want to talk about (3) issues.

1. Drive control. Linear speed control is not a good idea e.g. (pwy=p1_y) since it is very hard to control using the kit joysticks. I read the white paper on creating a lookup table to smooth the throttle. Is there a better way?

2. Speed Calibration. How do you get all of your wheels to spin at the same speed when given the same PWM value? I realize there are quite a few mechanical and electrical variables involved but want to know how you handle the one wheel that lags the others.

3. Rapid Speed Changes. How do you handle rapid speed changes in your code? Example, going from pwm=250 to pwm = 10 (full motor reversal)? This is obviously not good for the drive train. If you have written any code to handle this please share and save all of our drivetrains.