CAN, LabView, and Synchronization

[duane]

Is CAN synchronization going to be available for LabView? (I'm not sure if it's available for C++ or Java.)

If I am to understand what synchronization is for, I think it is actually required for any reasonably complex use of the Jaguars.

For example, the layout of the CANJaguar Motors vi screams for the use of synchronization. The Motors vi appears to be designed after the regular Motors vi, unfortunately CAN is synchronous and not parallel like the PWMs.

Even in a two motor configuration, the left side is going to move slightly sooner than the right side. With the 4 motor choice, the flow moves left, right, left, right.

If synchronization was used, one would set values on all the speed controllers and then sync them. This would work much more like the PWM case.

It appears at first, that this can be improved by paralyzing the error control from each Set Output vi. Unfortunately, there's no telling what happens on the serial port if the 4 vi's run in parallel. Hence, synchronization would be very useful here.

In our specific example, we have a 4 motor drive. We would like to use encoders directly connected to the Jaguars. But there is only one encoder for the two motor transmission. I would hope that synchronization could solve this issue (maybe not). As it is now, we need to connect the encoder to the cRio and do the PID control in the cRio.

Are we going to be able to get synchronization for LabView. Will synchronization solve these problems? Especially the encoder situation.