Arduino Engineering Kit - Scope does not show actual encoder position and speed

When tryng to follow the tutorial of section 2.3, the scope connected to the encoder block shows a constant value of zero, while in the tutorial it is shown a descending sine function. I am using Matlab r2020a and Simulink 10.1, because the r2019a, that came with the kit, has different issues on MacOS Catalina. I'm running it in normal mode.

Answer 1

[Arun Kumar]

Hi Gabriele,

Encoder blocks are not supported for Normal mode simulation. In the documentation of the block it is mentioned:

"If you simulate a model that contains the Encoder block without connecting the hardware, the block outputs zeroes"

https://www.mathworks.com/help/supportpkg/arduino/ref/encoder.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/block-produces-zeros-or-does-nothing-in-simulation.html

Try running the model in external mode.

HTH!

Thanks,

Arun

[Narcis]

Hi Arun,

I'm having the same problem and using the same versions of Matlab. I've tried to run the model following the instructions in "Block Produces Zeros or Does Nothing in Simulation":

To use External mode, in the Hardware Implementation pane of the Configuration Parameters dialog box, select your hardware board from the drop-down list. Then expand Target hardware resources, and under Groups select External mode. Then click Run.

It isn't working.

Also, when following the instructions of the Engineering Kit, I guess if

"In the model window, change the simulation stop time to Inf so that it will run indefinitely. Set the simulation mode to External, using the drop-down menu to the right of the stop time:"

is outdated, because I can set the stop time to Inf but to the right I can only scroll down "Normal", "Accelerator" and "Rapid Accelerator". So when you advise to run the model in external mode, I don't see if I miss something.

Thanks in advance,

Narcis Gascons

[Leung Marco]

Hi Arun,

I am facing the same problem as what the above people mentioned. There's not an option "External" availble next to "stop time" for version 2020a.

Please let us know how to solve this problem. Thanks very much!

Marco