Spark Max Partial Forward Error

Technical Programming
1

This year, my team is using Spark Maxes and Neos as part of our drivetrain. I wrote a simple tank drive program in Java, giving power to the left side and the right side of the drivetrain individually. The front motor controllers are following the back motor controllers, because our alternate encoder wiring can reach the back Spark Maxes more easily.

Now, here’s the problem. When I run the program, the left side runs smoothly, and each spark Max for the left side has a solid green LED. The right side does not run smoothly and has a blinking green LED. The blinking green LED apparently means “partial forward” while solid green means “full forward.” However, I am setting both sides to 0.3.

Right now, I am confused on why the right side is not running as smoothly as left. While it could potentially be a mechanical issue, I was wondering if the status of “partial forward” is causing the right side to run erratically. Thoughts?

2

Try swapping the CAN IDs of your left and right MAXes and see if the problem stays with the same hardware or follows the software. That should eliminate one or the other as the cause.

1 Like
3

Thank you for the feedback. Turns out it was a hardware issue where we forgot to plug in the encoder for the master spark max on the right side.

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4

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