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I'm interested in mimicking the functionality of the Arqball Spin, at $60 it isn't cheap so I'd like to make the most out of my Mindstorms parts.

I'd like to use NXT-G to program a motor to rotate 360° in 20 seconds. NXT-G can only controll the power of the motor and duration (Unlimited, Degrees, Rotations & Seconds). The power of the motor can be set from 0 to 100 seemingly arbitrary values:

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I don't mind using 3rd party software to program the motor, provided it's easy to use.

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    Do you have access to the Rotation Sensor at all? You might be able to do some internal calibration prior to the main run?
    – Zhaph - Ben Duguid ♦
    Jul 24, 2012 at 11:15
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    @Zhaph-BenDuguid Yes, I do, but it hasn't helped much. My motor is weak at low power (4-12-ish), it would turn at a reliable speed so I increased the power of the motor and added a small gear to power a larger one.
    – Ambo100 ♦
    Jul 25, 2012 at 20:24

1 Answer 1

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5

The problem can be restated: 360 / 20 = 18 deg / sec = 1 deg / .056 sec

One degree is the smallest increment provided by the rotation sensors.

NXT-G has a timer sensor with 1/100th second resolution.

In pseudo-code:

Set a motorPower variable to 10
Start a timer
Loop until rotationDegrees >= 360
    If timeElapsed * 18 > rotationSensorDegrees
        motorPower = motorPower - 1
    Else
        motorPower = motorPower + 1
    End If
    MoveBlock (power = motorPower)
End Loop
MoveBlock (stop)

Of course, use of the 8 tooth and 40 tooth gears to give a 5 to 1 reduction would give even better results. Even the best programming will have trouble offsetting bad mechanics.

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