Counters in wpilib

[Plex]

Are there alternatives to the counter method in wpilib? My team wants to count using an IR sensor every time a ball leaves the shooter. This would lead to a true or false value being returned. However, the counter method seems to only measure pulse lengths and duration, when we just want a variable to go up every time a ball leaves the shooter up to five. How would you do this?

[retrodaredevil]

I think a Counter is more for sensors than for detecting stuff like you want to. I would recommend doing this on your own. Something like this:

boolean wasDetected = false;
int counter = 0;
void periodic(){
    boolean isDetected = // your logic for if there is a ball detected here
    if(!isDetected && wasDetected){ // increment when ball leaves
        counter++; // increment or maybe decrement depending on what you're trying to do
    }
    wasDetected = isDetected;
}

[Plex]

Thank you! This really helps a lot.