RoboClaw Series
Brushed DC Motor Controllers
RoboClaw Series User Manual
83
BASICMICRO
Encoder Tuning
To control motor speed and or position with an encoder the PID must be calibrated for the
specific motor and encoder being used. Using Motion Studio the PID can be tuned manually or
by the auto tune fucntion. Once the encoders are tuned the settings can be saved to the onboard
eeprom and will be loaded each time the unit powers up.
The Motion Studio window for Velocity Settings will auto tune for velocity. The window for
Position Settings can tune a simple PD position controller, a PID position controller or a cascaded
Position with Velocity controller(PIV). The cascaded tune will determine both the velocity and
position values for the motor. Auto tune functions usually return reasonable values but manual
adjustments may be required for optimum performance.
Auto Tuning
Motion Studio provides the option to auto tune velocity and position control. To use the auto
tune option make sure the encoder and motor are running in the desired direction and the basic
PWM control of the motor works as expected. It is recommend to ensure the motor and encoder
combination are functioning properly before using the auto tune feature.
1. Go to the PWM Settings screen in Motion Studio.
2. Slide the motor slider up to start moving the motor forward. Check the encoder is increasing
in value. If it is not either reverse the motor wires or the encoder wires. The recheck.
3. To start auto tune click the auto tune button for the motor channel that is will be tuned first.
The auto tune function will try to determine the best settings for that motor channel.
If the motor or encoder are wired incorrectly, the auto tune function can lock
up and the motor controller will become unresponsive. Correct the wiring
problem and reset the motor controller to continue.
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