Project PLUG (Pins Less Utilisation Goal)

[auscompgeek]

(blame Gemini for the backronym, the other one I got was "Wire-reduction Initiative for Robotic Electronic Designs")

Problem

SystemCore only exposes 6 "smart I/O" pins.

“Smart I/O ports” capable of flexing between analog input, digital input (including PWM), digital output, and PWM output

We're currently using... 9 DIO pins on the roboRIO:

pyreefscape/ids.py

Lines 54 to 72 in 391246f

	"""roboRIO Digital I/O channel number."""
	STARBOARD_VISION_ENCODER = 1
	SWERVE_COAST_SWITCH = 2
	INTAKE_ENCODER = 3
	CLIMBER_ENCODER = 4
	ALGAE_INTAKE_SWITCH = 5
	LEFT_CLIMBER_SWITCH = 6
	RIGHT_CLIMBER_SWITCH = 7
	WRIST_ENCODER = 8
	PORT_VISION_ENCODER = 9

and that's not counting the 3 PWM pins we're using too:

pyreefscape/ids.py

Lines 77 to 82 in 391246f

	"""roboRIO PWM output channel number."""
	STARBOARD_VISION_SERVO = 0
	PORT_VISION_SERVO = 8
	LIGHT_STRIP = 2

Solution

See if we can't wire up a bunch of these encoders and switches to motor controllers instead.