I was wondering if the signal from the motor wires can interfere with any of the sensor wire’s signals (digital or analog); particularly the I2C wires. If so, how far apart do they have to be apart to not interfere with each other?
thanks in advance!
Hi,
This is a very good question. As I’m sure you know, any time current is passed through a wire it creates a magnetic field that can induce current in nearby wires - this induced current can cause a signal to be “noisy”. The amount of “noise” caused by adjacent wires is determined by (3X) primary factors 1) Current 2) The distance between wires 3) The length over which the wires are “side by side”. For typical VEX robots, the wire runs are short enough and the current is low enough that you don’t have to be concerned with power wires causing noise in analog or digital signals. (If you put an analog signal on an oscilloscope you may notice some signal variance due to noise induced by motor wires but for most robots it is not enough to be concerned with.)
I2C is a little more sensitive to noise than the analog and digital signals used by the Cortex. Short runs (one wire or less) will be fine unless they are adjacent to a power line for a high-load motor. If this is the case, it is recommended that the I2C wires are separated from the motor wires by about an inch.
Let me know if you have any more questions,
Charles
Thanks Charles. You answered all of my questions. I appreciate you responding so quickly.