TalonMotors

Talon Motors and how to use them: - CTRE motors can be used for more than swerve motors. We have both TalonFX and TalonFXS, which ARE different things, though a lot of the code is the same! These can both be used for other robot functions. Before getting into using them, I'll specify how they are different from one another. This year(2026), we mainly used Talon FX, which are the brushless motors that directly relate to FRC, such as the Kraken X60, the Kraken X44, and the Falcon 500. We used both Kraken X60s and Kraken X44s. On the other hand, we have the Talon FXS, which works with the CTRE Minion and third-party motors, such as NEOs, NEO 550s, NEO Vortexs, and most other third-party brushed motors. The main differences are that Talon FX motors are brushless and are related to FRC, where Talon FXS motors are not.

Configuring Talon FX: - When configuring the Talon FX in the code, it looks a little different than most motors. In the example below, the Talon FX is being used for a shooter. You will set it as shown below:

TalonFXConfiguration configShooter = new TalonFXConfiguration();

Configuring Talon FXS: - This is one of the places where the code between the two varies a little. You will see the Talon FXS config as shown below:

TalonFXSConfiguration config = new TalonFXSConfiguration();

The difference between the two is very minimum, but in these examples, the Talon FX specifies which one is being modified, with the configShooter, but the Talon FXS only has config.

Control Requests: - In the code, the control requests are set by using DutyCycleOut. These ones are written the same way for both, like below:

  public void setPower(double power) {
    dutyCycleShooter.Output = power;
    motorLeft.setControl(dutyCycleShooter);
  }

In this example, it is being used to set a shooter to a certain power.

Setting the motor power: - For the Talon FXS motors, you set the voltage power, like below:

    config.Voltage
      .withPeakForwardVoltage(12)
      .withPeakReverseVoltage(-12);
    config.Commutation.MotorArrangement = MotorArrangementValue.Brushed_DC;

- For the Talon FX motor, the code is very similar, but like the configuration, this one calls out a specific voltage that we're setting:

configShooter.Voltage
      .withPeakForwardVoltage(12)
      .withPeakReverseVoltage(-12);