README updated with instructions on testing motor and encoder connections

This commit is contained in:
Patrick Goebel 2012-12-26 09:49:11 -08:00
parent 554c4c8def
commit 01cca86e40

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@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ On a differential drive robot, the motors are connected to the motor controller
After **placing your robot on blocks**, you can use the Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE to test both requirements. Use the 'm' command to activate the motors, the 'e' command to get the encoder counts, and the 'r' command to reset the encoders to 0. Remember that at the firmware level, motor speeds are given in encoder ticks per second so that for an encoder resolution of, say 4000 counts per wheel revolution, a command such as 'm 20 20' should move the wheels fairly slowly. (The wheels will only move for 2 seconds which is the default setting for the AUTO_STOP_INTERVAL.) Also remember that the first argument is the left motor speed and the second argument is the right motor speed. Similarly, when using the 'e' command, the first number returned is the left encoder count and the second number is the right encoder count.
Finally, you can use the 'r' and 'e' commands to verify the expected encoder counts by rotating the wheels by hand roughly one full turn and checking the reported counts.
Configuring the ros\_arduino\_python Node
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