Overview

Motor controllers control motors by sending controlled levels of voltage to a motor.
In this section, you will learn to and create motor controller objects in Java.
You will then create the methods that control these components.

Creating a TalonSRX Object

Place this in the class constructor under public class <Subsystem_name> extends SubsystemBase

private final WPI_TalonSRX <motorcontrollername> = new  WPI_TalonSRX(X);

The number X corresponds to the CANId of the motor controller.
Each motor controller has a unique CANId to make sure the correct one is called.

Creating a VictorSP Object

Place this under public class <Subsystem_name> extends SubsystemBase

private final WPI_VictorSPX <motorcontrollername> = new WPI_VictorSPX(X);

The number X corresponds to the CANId of the motor controller.

Creating Motor Controller Methods

A method is a function of the subsystem.
Other parts of code can call the method, which will automatically run the block of code between the {}. This allows for code to be reused throughout the program.

To create a method, place the following code before the final bracket.
Be sure to name the method starting with a lowercase letter, then camelCase.

public void <method_name>(){

}

If you would like to pass a parameter into the method, use the following syntax.
Multiple parameters can be passed if needed.

public void <method_name>(<datatype> <parameter_name>){

}

Methods should be placed at the bottom of the subsystem, but still contained within the class like so:

Motor Controller Functions

Each motor controler comes with a pre-built library of common functions. The most common are below:

Methods	Description	Example
set	if control mode = PercentOutpuit, value of [-1,1]	LeftElevatorMotor.set(1.0);
setInverted	switches rotation of motor (by default, positive values are counterclockwise, negative values are clockwise)	LeftElevatorMotor.setInverted(true)
stopMotor	stops motor	LeftElevatorMotor.stopmotor();

For a full description, see the following links
TalonSRX API
VictorSP API

Example

A function of an elevator may be to lift to a certain height, lower, or to stop.
The motors controlling the elevator will push the elevator in a certain direction.

To do the above, the following functions were created:

This sets the elevator motor that we created earlier at a certain value. For example, to stop the elevator, we could call setElevator(0.0) to stop the elevator motors.