Controller Express is the fastest way to get started with VEX IQ programming. Using a friendly graphical interface, you will build a robot, click on some options, and then be driving your robot in short order. In learning to use Controller Express, you will also will learn about the VEX IQ Brain and motors.
We will create a "tank drive" control for your first robot. Pushing up on the left joystick (the "A" channel) will make the left side go forward, and on the right joystick (the "D" channel) will make the right side go forward. Pull them both down to go backwards, and move them in opposite directions to turn. In this mode, we will not be using the side-to-side motion of the joysticks, so there will be no actions on channels B or C.
The Controller has eight controls that send signals to the Brain. These are:
Here is what these look like on the controller:
When your Brain is programmed correctly, it will see the inputs from each of these eight controls and then run the program you wrote for it.
Start by building the Standard Drive Base Robot in the VEX IQ Build Instructions, steps 1-19. After you build your robot, we can get started.
After your robot is ready to go, go to Robot Mesh Studio at robotmesh.com, and create your project.VEX IQ robots are run by a computer called the VEX IQ Brain. The VEX IQ Controller sends inputs which the Brain then uses to execute actions. Using Controller Express, you can write a computer program in a few minutes to map inputs on the Controller to devices plugged into the VEX IQ Brain, based on your configuration.
Before getting started make sure that you followed all the instructions in VEX IQ Controller Users Guide to configure your VEX IQ Brain, motors and sensors.
Prepare your robot:
Prepare RM Studio:
Now that you have created a programming project and configured your motors, you can use Controller Express to tell your robot what to do:
In Robot Mesh Studio, click on the Generated Code tab. What you see there is the programming code that the Controller Express creates automatically. It is in Python, a high-level programming language that is popular in both schools and industry, combining ease of learning with powerful features. We will be going into Python later in our curriculum, but it is good to remember that both Controller Express and Blockly create Python code, which is what is actually downloaded to the VEX IQ Brain.
The previous program uses what is called "tank drive" where each side of the drivetrain is controlled separately by each joystick. Some robot drivers prefer what is called "arcade drive" where one joystick controls both drive motors. To test arcade drive, do this:
Try driving your robot. Does the C/D joystick do anything? How does the robot respond to the A/B joystick?
What happens when you set the arcade settings on channel D instead of A? Can you figure out how to try this?
1. What do the letters printed on the VEX IQ Controller mean? How do you use them in programming?
2. What is the difference between tank drive and arcade drive? Which do you think is easiest to drive?
3. What kind of programming code does Controller Express create?