Misbehaving encoders

[nathanww]

The theory you are describing (that you aren't reading the encoders fast enough and that they are going HIGH->LOW->HIGH so fast you don't see the "LOW" part) is known as aliasing.

Actually, the theory that I was referring to was that there wasn't enough difference between the voltage that the encoder sends for HIGH and what it sends for LOW. When we looked at this, it didn't really seem to actually touch either extreme of max/min--so we thought that it might be possible that the control system wasn't seeing these small differences because both the HIGH and LOW fall into what it considers HIGH.

What kind of encoder are you using?

It's the US digital kit encoder

How is it currently wired?

Each encoder's A and B outputs are wired to the signal in on the digital sidecar. We also use the power and ground on one PWM for those connections on the encoder
[/quote]

Are you using LabView or C++, and what encoder code are you using?

We're using C++, which is

	Encoder *encoder1;
***more declarations******
encoder1=new Encoder(2,3,false,Encoder::k4X);
*****more config stuff********
void RobotInit(void) {
encoder1->Start();
encoder1->SetDistancePerPulse(100); //values are completely arbitary
encoder1->SetMinRate(1);
*****the rest of the init, now in the teleop periodic*****

printf("encoder1=%d",encoder1->Get());
    if (encoder1->GetStopped()) {
		printf("encoder stopped");
       }

[Jared Russell]

Do you remember the exact voltages you were seeing for high and low? They should be close (within a volt, for sure) to 5V and 0V, respectively. Are you sure you saw the change on *both* encoder outputs?

Your code looks good. You could try changing the decoding type to Encoder::k1X and seeing if that changes anything. Then try hot swapping DI 2 and 3 and seeing if you get anything (this forces the cRIO to only examine one channel at a time).

[Steve_Alaniz]

Originally Posted by nathanww

Actually, the theory that I was referring to was that there wasn't enough difference between the voltage that the encoder sends for HIGH and what it sends for LOW. When we looked at this, it didn't really seem to actually touch either extreme of max/min--so we thought that it might be possible that the control system wasn't seeing these small differences because both the HIGH and LOW fall into what it considers HIGH.



It's the US digital kit encoder


Each encoder's A and B outputs are wired to the signal in on the digital sidecar. We also use the power and ground on one PWM for those connections on the encoder

[/quote]

First of all, the encoders will send a 0 - 5 V or NEARLY a 0-5V square wave from both A and B channels. So there's no way that theory could be correct... unless you made a mistake building the quad system or the US digital unit is defective. Since you didn't build it and US Digital is primo stuff, both are unlikely. Although I DID have my very first failed USDigital device this year.
You need an o'scope to properly look at the signals for A and B and as I said, they SHOULD be a square wave 90 degrees out of phase with each other. ( At VERY high speeds there might not be time for the signal to drop to 0 or rise to 5 but you didn't say anything that might make me think that is a possibility.)
You said you are using a PWM for power to the encoders? Do you have a jumper on the 6V enable pins for that PWM? Sorry if that seems rudimentary but it a simple mistake that even I... <ahem> .. could POSSIBLY make... in a bizarre set of circumstances... not actually admitting anything you understand.

Steve

[Tom Line]

"Why aren't the camera servo's moving?"

2 hours of trouble shooting later: "Guys.... we don't have 5 volt power to the servos. Anyone want to guess why?"

[Steve_Alaniz]

Originally Posted by Steve_Alaniz

You said you are using a PWM for power to the encoders? Do you have a jumper on the 6V enable pins for that PWM?

Steve

Oh wait... scratch that... you said PWM but you probably meant GPIO ports. (I just remembered PWMs are output ports only.) GPIOs have 5V continuously available. So you should have 5V present and they have internal 5V pull up resistors, so the signal should be clean.
Unless you damaged the encoder wheel installing it, this suspiciously looks like a software glitch. Still before doing any software stuff, you really need to look at the "signal in" levels with an o'scope or in a pinch a multimeter will work ( just to prove you get level changes).
I need to read these posts with greater care.

Steve

[Jared Russell]

When you are powering your encoder from your cRIO you should see the red LED inside the encoder housing turn on. Make sure that this is the case.

[NickE]

Originally Posted by nathanww

Each encoder's A and B outputs are wired to the signal in on the digital sidecar. We also use the power and ground on one PWM for those connections on the encoder

The A and B outputs are wired to two separate digital inputs, correct?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by nathanww

Each encoder's A and B outputs are wired to the signal in on the digital sidecar. We also use the power and ground on one PWM for those connections on the encoder

The encoder has four connections. Can you detail precisely where each of those connections is going? I hope you aren't really using PWM outputs for power.

How do you know the robot isn't reading the encoder properly?

printf("encoder1=%d",encoder1->Get());

I didn't use C++ this season, and I don't have the documentation handy, so I don't know if %d is what you want. Doesn't the Get() method return a long integer?

[Jared Russell]

Yes, Get() returns an INT32.

[nathanww]

The encoder has four connections. Can you detail precisely where each of those connections is going? I hope you aren't really using PWM outputs for power.

How do you know the robot isn't reading the encoder properly?

"PWM" here is referring to the cable we've spliced to, not the output on the digital sidecar

I sketched out a diagram of eaxctly how it's set up and attached it.

We know the robot isn't reading the encoder because the value from Get() never changes, and the robot always reports that it is stopped, even when moving

When you are powering your encoder from your cRIO you should see the red LED inside the encoder housing turn on. Make sure that this is the case.

Yep--we saw this, and when we checked it with a multimeter(we don't have an o-scope), we saw fluctuation in values--it just seems that the robot isn't interpreting it correctly.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by nathanww

"PWM" here is referring to the cable we've spliced to, not the output on the digital sidecar

I sketched out a diagram of eaxctly how it's set up and attached it.

We know the robot isn't reading the encoder because the value from Get() never changes, and the robot always reports that it is stopped, even when moving


Yep--we saw this, and when we checked it with a multimeter(we don't have an o-scope), we saw fluctuation in values--it just seems that the robot isn't interpreting it correctly.

That is a sweet MS Paint sketch

Everything looks correct to me. So the problem is either really obscure, or right under our noses.

More ideas:

1. Are you sure you are using the correct port on the cRIO for the sidecar? Are you sure the sidecar is fully powered (12V power from the main breaker is necessary)?

2. Try commenting out the encoder code and instead creating DigitalInputs on the same two DIO lines. Call Get() on that and turn the encoder to make sure that you can at least see the two lines fluctuating.

3. Since you have a multimeter, verify that you are getting (close to) 0V and 5V on the Ch A and Ch B outputs as you rotate the powered encoder.

[Steve_Alaniz]

Originally Posted by nathanww

"PWM" here is referring to the cable we've spliced to, not the output on the digital sidecar

I sketched out a diagram of eaxctly how it's set up and attached it.

We know the robot isn't reading the encoder because the value from Get() never changes, and the robot always reports that it is stopped, even when moving


Yep--we saw this, and when we checked it with a multimeter(we don't have an o-scope), we saw fluctuation in values--it just seems that the robot isn't interpreting it correctly.

Sounds right. Are you doing this in Autonomous mode? We couldn't read our sensors in autonomous. They act like they never change. I wasn't involved with the software but The sensors worked in teleop mode so we proved they were working. Not sure what the problem was. They may not have been set up as global variables ... something like that.

Steve

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by nathanww

I sketched out a diagram of eaxctly how it's set up and attached it.

You've shown three wires going to one thing, and one wire going to another. The sketch doesn't show which pins on those "things" the wires go to. If your labeling of the wires on the left matches the order they're connected to the GPIO pins, I think you have +5 and ground reversed.

[nathanww]

You've shown three wires going to one thing, and one wire going to another. The sketch doesn't show which pins on those "things" the wires go to. If your labeling of the wires on the left matches the order they're connected to the GPIO pins, I think you have +5 and ground reversed.

I don't have the robot to look at, so I accidentally reversed them on the diagram. We know that the orientation is correct on the robot because the encoder LEDs are lighting, which wouldn't happen if they were getting reversed current, and we can get some variation as we turn the wheel, so it's not something weird like getting the ground and signal wires mixed up.


And yeah, we're running it in the teleop mode,and we have other sensors on the GPIO that work fine

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by nathanww

I don't have the robot to look at, so I accidentally reversed them on the diagram.

Without accurate details, I can't help further. Sorry.

An actual photograph of your wiring would help a lot at this point. So would a good closeup of how you have the encoder disk attached. Your code looks fine to me (except for a nagging worry about using the %d format specifier with a long integer).