Anyone know the response speed of the Vex microcontroller? I’m developing the program for my compressor unit and am sensing when to drive the solenoid with an optical shaft encoder. The problem is I’m afraid that the microcontroller won’t be able to switch teh solenoid fast enough for the speed of the motor.
Thanks for any help,
Zat
i am pretty sure the speed is very fast, not sure how fast, though
how fast do you want the cilinder to oscelate (remember, the cilinder takes time to fully extend/retract)
Well, the oscillating speed so to speak is defined by how fast the gear rotates which is a 60 tooth gear with the small U-connectors running through one gear hole.
i see, i say that the processor speed is way fast enough to do that, make sure you have the right coding in the programming, and good luck.
send me pics, i wanna’ see this
The Crystal in the Vex Controller that “drives the micro-processor” is 10Mhz (Megahertz) (IIRC, open the case and look for the little silver colored crystal with the numbers on the top).
The “main function” is executed every 18.5ms (milliseconds) (re Master Loop Rate). This rate is the same regardless of which programming software you are using.
At 1000 ms per Second, simple division says that your code in the “main function” should execute around 54.054054054054054054054054054054 times per second.
If you have lots of “time consuming” functions (like printf), this rate will slow, but I would think that you could count on 35-40 times per second for the main loop… Remember if you take too long, the Master Processor will act as a Watch Dog, and it “kicks in”, evidenced with Programming Light Flashes Red.
Confusing!
What!?! The “terminology” or the “concept”?
A While Loop inside the Main will execute approximately 54.5 times per second.
the technology, i am not familiar wit’ programming, i want to get the programming kit and learn, though
“the technology”… Ahhh…
OK, how about this…
The Processor (e.g. Micro Processor, Engine[Like Graphic Engine], or Core) is like a Delivery Driver with a small “car” that has a few small storage boxes in it to hold the “Delivery Items” (and to keep them from “rolling around”).
(We shall refer to the driver as she, since it is my story, and I have 4 Daughters and “only” 1 Son.)
You need to know Four Things about the Delivery Driver:
- She knows how to read a “List of Instruction”, what we now call the instruction list.
- She knows the “Addresses” of where She can Deliver “Items”, what we now call the address.
- She knows the “Items” that she can “deliver”, what we now call the data.
- She knows that of ALL the “Items” (data) that she has in her possession, she can only hold “One Item” data at-a-time, in her hands, the other “Items” (data) she must place in one of the car’s “few small storage boxes”, what we now call the storage registers.
She can do these Four Things:
- Follow the instruction list.
- Can Deliver an “item” (now called data) from one of her car’s “few small storage boxes” (the storage registers) to that Address (now called the address), or pick up an “item” (data) from that Address (address) and place it in one of her car’s “few small storage boxes” (the storage registers), or even modify the “item” (data) at that Address (address) with some other “item” (data) in one of her car’s “few small storage boxes” (the storage registers).
- Check (also called test) the “item” (data) at an Address (address), and see if it is TOO BIG, TOO SMALL or JUST RIGHT.
- Follow an instruction on her instruction list, that says she needs to go to a “different” part of her instruction list, and start following the instructions there, what we now call a branch or jump.
That is just about all the Deliver Driver can do…
I will explain more about any of the “steps”, if you want…
no thanks, i am good for now, thanks for explaning