We are trying to test our mechanisms with the new v5 motors, is there a way to power the motor (forward and reverse) with just a battery like we used to do with the 393 motors.
No, but what you can do is plug them into a V5 brain and use the devices menu to turn on a motor. This at least avoids having to write a program.
It is just a trade off we pay for “smart motors”.
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I actually didn’t know that, so thank you for your response. I need to try that now…
That works great, thanks (Never thought about this option…)
I have found the V5 motors to be bottlenecked in the menu as if they have PID from VCS’s motor.speed() PID system. IMO I would suggest writing a small code using buttons to control the motor with the coding platform you use, as the specific platform uses the motors in their own way compared to other platforms(If you aren’t using VCS and using something else like PROS)
VCS does not control motors in any way differently from PROS, RMS, or VEXcode. The PID that’s running is in the motor. All motor control is via VEXos and the API’s we provide to the programming dev teams.
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My apologies on the confusion I probably didnt explain it clearly. I understand it is the motor’s internal PID but I program in PROS where it doesnt use the internal PID (Motor = 127, for example). What that means is that although internal PID has a specific ceilIng speed to accomplish, it will have to be slower than Motor = 127, which tells it directly “go full throttle.” I tested the speed of my flywheel using the devices menu and it is slower than simply programming Motor = 127 in PROS. So for testing the devices menu would work, but for testing speed it may not work in every scenario.
How do you set the rotation value for the V5 motor’s encoders? Or can you give me website links or anything else to help us? Also how do you code the image sensors, ultrasonic range finders, and bumper switches for v5, since the VEX website doesn’t help at all. Please make it as simple as possible because we are only middle school students. Thank you in advance! @Kaleo03 @jpearman
It’s actually pretty handy.
Would you recommend using potentiometers or using the encoders in the motors? My kids unfortunately are new to this part of coding and so am I as a coach.
If your just testing the motors then just plug them in follow the steps above and it will show all the values you’d need to know.
On motors you want to use encoders because potentiometers only moves to a certain point similar to what a servo does where as an encoder does not have this fixed ROM, also the new V5 motors have integrated encoders so you do not have to worry about attaching encoders to shafts unless you are using 393 or 269 motors then they do not have integrated encoders and you need to attach them to the drive shaft. Hope that helps clear things up.
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The VCS API command reference can be found here. Sonar can be used via Sonar.distance in c++ and the vision sensor has mulitple commands that you can find at the bottom of the command reference and the bump switch is Bumper.pressing . Hope this helps you and your team out
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