Skip to content

Guides Articles Paths Glossary Resources Tools Leaderboard For teams

394 lessons across 11 departments, from swerve geometry to the Impact Award essay. Written by a high-school student who needed this and could not find it.

free to read, no account needed

new lessons in your inbox

Email address

One email when something worth reading goes up. No other mail, ever.

learn

Guides
Articles
Learning paths
Glossary
Tools and calculators
Resources

team

For teams
Dashboard
Leaderboard
Log in
Get started

the record

Who made this
Contributions
Corrections
Contact

elsewhere

FIRST Inspires
WPILib docs
Chief Delphi
The Blue Alliance

© 2026 LearnFRC. Built by Jahaan Pardhanani. Not affiliated with or endorsed by FIRST®.Privacy Terms394 lessons / 11 departments© 2026

note on accuracy

LearnFRC is in beta. Lessons are AI-assisted: drafted from primary sources like the WPILib docs, the game manual and vendor sites, then reviewed for accuracy. If something looks wrong, open the lesson and suggest an edit. Every open suggestion is public on the contributions page, and every fix we make to a fact is written down in the corrections log.

home
/
glossary
/
encoder

drawer / Sensors & Controls

Encoder

A sensor that measures rotation/position of a shaft, essential for closed-loop control and odometry.

Official source

where you actually meet Encoder

An encoder is how your code knows where a mechanism actually is, rather than where it was told to go. You meet them everywhere: drivetrain distance for odometry, arm angle for a position loop, flywheel speed for a shooter. The recurring lesson is absolute versus relative — a relative encoder forgets its zero every power cycle, which is why arms need an absolute reference.

Lessons that use Encoder

Free and structured, and none of them need an account to read.

3lessons

Programming, Controls & Sensors
Encoders: Measuring Position and Velocity

Absolute Encoders: Duty-Cycle, Analog, and the REV Through Bore

Encoders that know their angle the instant they power on, and why that matters for arms and swerve.open Programming, Controls & Sensors
Encoders: Measuring Position and Velocity

Integrated and CAN Encoders: NEO, Falcon/Kraken, and CANcoder

The encoders built into modern brushless motors and the CTRE CANcoder, plus sensor fusion in firmware.open Programming, Controls & Sensors
Encoders: Measuring Position and Velocity

Quadrature Encoders and How They Work

The foundational incremental encoder type, how it senses direction and counts, and what CPR/PPR mean.open

Filed next to it

the jargon travels in packs

Software

Odometry

Tracking the robot's position on the field over time using encoder and gyro data (often fused with vision).

Software

PID Controller

A feedback control loop (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) that drives a mechanism to a target by reacting to error.

Sensors & Controls

SPARK MAX

A REV Robotics motor controller for brushed and brushless (NEO) motors, configured via REV Hardware Client.

Sensors & Controls

Gyroscope / IMU

A sensor that measures the robot's heading and rotation; common units are the NavX and CTRE Pigeon 2.0.

Encoder is one of 70 entries in the catalogue. The guides are where these words get used in order, instead of one at a time.

Back to the catalogue Browse the guides