Motors

NextMotor is a lightweight wrapper around the standard FTC motor (DcMotor or DcMotorEx) that provides standard easy-to-use interface for throttling, voltage control, PIDS, and more

Creating a NextMotor

There are two main ways to construct a NextMotor, depending on what you desire.

Kotlin

// By Lynx Module and port, recommended
val intakeMotor = NextMotor(RobotController.controlHub, 0)

// Using a configuration name
val intakeMotor = NextMotor("intakeMotor")

Java

// By Lynx Module and port, recommended
NextMotor intakeMotor = new NextMotor(RobotController.controlHub(), 0);

// Using a configuration name
NextMotor intakeMotor = new NextMotor("intakeMotor");

All constructors accept two optional parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
anglePerCount	Angle	1.0 rad	The angle that a motor’s shaft rotates by for every ‘tick’ or ‘count’, used to convert ‘ticks’ into the number of rotations the motor has spun.
cacheTolerance	Double	0.01	Minimum change in throttle required before a new value is written to the motor.

Usage

Throttle Control

Throttle Control allows the motor to be throttled from -1.0 (reverse) to 1.0 (full power). The value represents a fraction of the robot’s total voltage.

Kotlin

// Adjust 1.0 to be what value you would like it to be
myMotor.throttle = 1.0

Java

// Adjust 1.0 to be what value you would like it to be
myMotor.setThrottle(1.0)

Voltage Control

Voltage Control allows the motor’s power to be controlled more accurately and set to a specific voltage.

Kotlin

// This function takes in a 'Voltage'
myMotor.voltage = 12.0.volts

Java

// This function takes in a 'Voltage'
myMotor.setVoltage(Volts.of(12))

Positional Control

Positional control allows the motor’s position to be controlled using a PID Controller

You can change the default positional PID constants by doing:

Kotlin

myMotor.positionConstants.apply {
    kP = 0.1
}
// Like kP, other positional PID constants include:
// kP, kI, kD, kS, kV, kA, kG, kCos, kCosRatio

Java

myMotor.getPositionConstants()
    .withP(0.1)
// Like kP, other positional PID constants include:
// kP, kI, kD, kS, kV, kA, kG, kCos, kCosRatio

Relative Positional Control

This moves the motor to the designated position relative to the position of the motor during the robot’s startup.

Kotlin

// Increase the target to be your desired angle from the initial position
myMotor.setPositionSetpoint(90.degrees)

Java

// Increase the target to be your desired angle from the initial position
myMotor.setPositionSetpoint(Degrees.of(90))

Absolute Positional Control

This makes the motor take the shortest path, regardless of rotations to an angle in the range [-180, 180] degrees.

Kotlin

// Increase the target to be your desired angle
myMotor.setAbsolutePositionSetpoint(90.degrees)

Java

// Increase the target to be your desired angle
myMotor.setAbsolutePositionSetpoint(Degrees.of(90))

Velocity Control

Similar to Positional Control velocity control allows the motor’s velocity to be controlled using a PID Controller

Kotlin

// Increase the target to be your desired angular velocity
myMotor.setVelocitySetpoint(30.degreesPerSecond)

Java

// Increase the target to be your desired angular velocity
myMotor.setVelocitySetpoint(DegreesPerSecond.of(30))

You can change the default velocity PID constants by doing:

Kotlin

myMotor.velocityConstants.apply {
    kP = 0.1
}
// Like kP, other velocity PID constants include:
// kP, kI, kD, kS, kV, kA

Java

myMotor.getVelocityConstants()
    .withP(0.1)
// Like kP, other velocity PID constants include:
// kP, kI, kD, kS, kV, kA

Following other motors

NextMotor’s have a helpful feature that allows one motor to ‘follow’ or mimic another motor.

You can use this feature by doing:

Kotlin

myFollowerMotor.follow(myLeaderMotor)

// Optional direction to specify whether it should follow in the same
// or opposite direction.
myFollowerMotor.follow(myLeaderMotor, Direction.REVERSE)

Java

myFollowerMotor.follow(myLeaderMotor)

// Optional direction to specify whether it should follow in the same
// or opposite direction.
myFollowerMotor.follow(myLeaderMotor, Direction.REVERSE)

Direction

You can set the Direction property of NextMotor’s to control the direction that the motor rotates in.

Direction Type	Description
Direction.FORWARD	The motor moves forward (Clockwise)
Direction.REVERSE	The motor spins in the opposite direction (Counter-Clockwise)

ZeroPowerBehaviour

The ZeroPowerBehaviour property allows you to control how the motor reacts when it is given a throttle of 0

ZeroPowerBehaviour Type	Description
ZeroPowerBehaviour.BRAKE	Actively stops the motor when given a power of 0
ZeroPowerBehaviour.FLOAT	Allows the motor to naturally spin and eventually stop by itself