New team with drive train/motor issues

VEX V5 Technical Support
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We are a new team with a very major (but not crippling) situation. We have two motors that drive our 4 wheels (one on each side that is connected to a gear set that powers the 2 wheels on its side). One of the motors is flipped, which means when we try to drive forward our bot turns and when we try to turn it goes forward. We have a temporary fix by having the controller set up where the right joystick (going moving left and right) makes the bot go forward (it is supposed to turn) and the left joystick (going up and down) makes the robot turn. It is a temporary fix but very confusing for our drivers

Long story short how do we reverse a motor and still use the joysticks (we are using block coding)
Also, we are a VERY new team so please dumb down any terms that are normally used
Pictures can be posted if needed

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Just to make sure are you using V5? If so go to the menu and select the motor which is reveresed, and press on it that should reverse it

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It should appear the the device configuration setup.
Or declare it when you declare your motors

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Could y’all send some pictures so we don’t screw up the brain.

(P.S. We are during V5)

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Its impossible to screw up the brain with code unless you try to hack it. Normal code won’t hurt the vexOS in the brain.

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A quick update, we still can’t get it fixed.

We want to use the joysticks but we can do it because the joysticks are only allowed to be used in the drive train mode and I have no idea how to reverse a motor when it is considered part of the “drive train”

Basically, how do we use the joysticks without the drive train setting or how do you reverse a single motor in the drive train setting.\

P.S. Thank you for every one who is trying to help :slight_smile:

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Oh I think you dont say motor backwards when your joystick values are less than 0. I think you just set velocity to joystick position and let it rip

I’m pretty sure that motor backwards + negative joystick value is -1 times -joystickValue = +joystickValue making your bot go forwards no matter what.

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We can do make it go forward but the problem is that it is awkward for the drives pushing on stick forward and one stick back.

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You can do arcade drive, either one stick or split arcade.

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How do you set that up (once again we are a very new team and we are partly dumb)

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To be honest, I’m not the person to say that. I’m not that good at coding myself, and my arcade is two stick. Also my solution is less than perfect.

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Ok as I can see you are new. What I got from your post is your motors are reversed? Now I suggest you do a arcade drive which is with two sticks. One stick controls each side. A tank drive is with one which is bad for me. For your revered motors is a simple fix. What are you using to code? I use vexcode text. I could help.

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Correction: tank drive is with two sticks.
Arcade can either use two sticks like mine, or one stick.

In tank drive, each stick controls the corresponding side of the drivetrain.
In arcade two stick, one stick controls front/back and the other controls turning.
In arcade one stick, one stick controls fr9nt/back and turning.

In my opinion, tank drive is easiest to code, followed by two stick(split) arcade, then one stick arcade.

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Yes although tank drive would be easier to code, it’s not easier to drive with. So only teams which are on very tight schedule should use tank drive, unless that’s what their used to.

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We started out using arcade drive, and then our driver hated it. He did vex like two years ago, and was just used to tank controls. I think it is just a matter of opinion, there are pros and cons for both of them. For example, tank drive might be easier to turn with, but with arcade drive you can go forward and backward easily.

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The only con to tank drive is it’s harder to learn, it’s better than arcade in every over way, you can turn more precisely, it’s just as easy to go forward and backwards too, and you can drift (which is obviously the most important thing to need to do)

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I prefer tank drive because as a kid I played with remote control toy tanks and the joysticks were set up that way so i’m used to it.

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tank drive is a very viable option. like @224x said its less intuitive at first, especially to those used to arcade style controls from video games, but once you master it, you get much more control and precision of your robot. Plus for some its just easier, like me. I think of tank control like a steering wheel,

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We use the vex blocks because we don’t know the language but we know the concepts.

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