Arduino PID Controller - From Scratch! 

I designed this system with an approach based around how I would like to have been thought it originally years ago when I studied it. All credit to the education I got, it was excellent, but for all the theory I had a firm grasp of, I failed utterly at being able to apply it in real life outside of simulations in Matlab. I think if I had been able to sit down with a physical system in front of me, code the microcontroller and see the outputs in real time it would have done so much for my understanding. My hope is that this is an accessible resource for people who are coming at this as a beginner hobbyist or a student, like I was, with a good understanding of the theory but fuzzy on the real world application.

one of the most through explanations ive seen, so refreshing to see behind the scenes instead of someone just using a library that makes everything into a black box

Thank you! This was exactly what I needed to implement a motor speed controller. Your explanation was concise and clear and your video was enjoyable to watch.

I've been tuning PID's for 25 years from chain driven sloppy movements to oven temps to CNC, and thought I was accomplished when I used the PID library.. I wish I had seen this years ago. Very well done and simplified the black box magic. Those block diagrams are great but thinking thru the math is essential for tuning intuition.

Loved your explanation throughout, very easy to follow and understand. Also, it's visible that you love this stuff too. Makes it an interesting watch.

Man, at my 3rd year of engineering and i am thinking of making a stability project with 2 brushless motor, but I wasn’t sure if how easy it is, but after watching your video now I’m 💯 sure i will be doing it. The hand gestures, the way you explain and the plan you choose to explain the code and the oscillation graph it was all perfect. Thank you ❤

Thanks for this video and especially the link to the code. This helped me to understand the PID calculation. In code format its much easier to understand than to read Wiki and see the long formula with strange symbols :D

Many thanks brother, I´ve been interested in making balancing robots for fun, and donate the project to my university so other students can see the helpfulness and importance of PID in control systems. With this explanation I feel more confident in starting this iniciative.

doing 3rd year mechanical, and wanted to see actual application of such, this video is great.

Man, this is perfect. ❤ Respect from EGYPT.

very fascinating experiment and easy to understand, for something that I really struggle to learn.

Thank you so much for your effort 👍🏻 Greetings from Germany

Thank You so much!! Just what I needed.

this video is just incredibly good

Thank you for this video! I'm currently working on a personal project - creating something like a diesel engine controller based on the VP37 pump. There's a type of inductive solenoid that adjusts the fuel dosage based on a PWM signal it receives. The feedback signal is from a Hartley generator, generating a DC voltage that changes depending on the position of the actuator. It seems like a straightforward task - just drive the solenoid with the right waveform based on the feedback voltage... But unfortunately, it's not that simple! Unexpected problems arise, such as the coil heating up during operation, requiring compensation for temperature drift, or fluctuations in the solenoid's supply voltage... The solenoid itself is mounted on springs and can oscillate on its own... :) I struggled with this a bit, and I have to say that PID behaves impressively well in this regard, better than all my other solutions. I'm still dealing with the issue of voltage fluctuations - when the coil's supply voltage changes, the solenoid changes its position. After a while, the PID stabilizes it, but there's still some fluctuation in the actuator's position. Thanks again for the great explanation in your video!"

Thanks for uploading this. Gigachad move

awesome! thank you very much. You dont know how much I needed this

Thankyou very much for this one

very strong video! could you do a follow up video implementing a MPC control algorithm for the same system in Arduino? It would hightlight the key differences and relative performance really well I think

It is awesome! Very useful video for me

Well explained, but, this is a digital system which is a fast response system which means that the closed loop responds quickly, when you start implementing this with a slow response like a heating element this response is very slow because the closed loop has to wait for the "response" from the thermistor that monitors the surrounding heating. This gets very interesting very quickly...... Nice video and a good delivery.

one thing that confuses me is when the actual goes above the set point, won't the proportional and derivative terms become negative , so couldnt there be a case where the output is negative and you try and write a negative voltage to the pin?

Than you very much! Your video has given me a good understanding of how PID works. I do have a doubt though, the integral term accumulates over time so if it keep on adding up it would contribute more to the error calculation right? I have seen some vids where they have a saturation limit, but even then there is no way to reduce this unless it overshoots right? Should we reset the addition over time from time to time if it reaches the set-point?

That's a great explanation; however, I think we should consider making the PID gains more adaptive to enhance the code's generality and accuracy. Would this improvement be beneficial or will it add unnecessary overhead to the code?

What if I don't use the dt value? I mean for integral instead of integral +=error*dt I will use integral+=error. The same for derivative. The dt determined by the timer interrupt. Meaning it is a constant value. But I don't use it in calculations. Will it work correctly?

Appreciate for sharing !~ Would be grateful if could also share the hardware screenshot as well 😀

Great video 👍🏽 I have one big question that I am not able to solve… In my scenario, I need a PID control that prevents my motor from accelerating beyond 6 km/h, even with the throttle fully engaged. That means my target is 6, and my actual value is the measured speed at the front wheel. However, the PID has to output a value between 0-255 for throttle regulation. How do I establish the correlation here? Your code example doesn't provide me with values within this range because I'm only feeding it with speeds.

thx your ass pro❤❤❤❤

Sassy 💁🏻‍♀️