So, one of our wheels has stopped working. The code has not changed, and this issue arose yesterday. The front right wheel spins fine in reverse, but it spins at like 1/10 speed going forward. We have switched motors, and it didn’t fix it. The motor controller is also not the issue. Does anyone have any helpful advice?
If you’ve swapped the motor hardware, it may be in the Cortex. (I assume you still are using it because V5 doesn’t have controllers) I would swap the port and see what that does. Also try to download a simple code to run the motor and see what happens.
Change the Cortex, too, if you have spares.
This is really, really good advice that too many people ignore. The software is much easier to test than changing hardware. A minimal program that works will let you know that the problem lies in your full program without having to first change motors, change motor controllers, reassemble mechanisms, etc.
There’s also a feature in Robot Mesh Studio where you can click “connect” and it gives you little manual sliders to control the motors by hand, which also works as a “minimal working program.”
@John TYler complimented me?! My life goals have been fulfilled!
I usually try changing the port first, though. I plug the wire into the other slots and see it it works there. Then I swap the controller, then I go to code.
I fixed it. It was the port. It was port 10. Now I need to change all the code because with 2 broken ports (1 was already broken) I need y cables. Also, it isn’t even our cortex. We borrowed it from PLTW, because ours were sent in for V5
Ah, yeah. The motor controllers for ports 1 & 10 are built in to the Cortex, which is why it’s generally not advisable to use them for strenuous tasks like running drive trains without sensors and code to protect them from overwork.