Mini maestro 12 inputs problem

Hi,

I am new to the community. I have a maestro 12 and experiencing some problems with the inputs to any of the ports. I set channel 7 and channel 8 to input mode. Then as a test, I wired up a 50k resistor in parallel with a chain of LED lights. The idea is that I want to activate a sequence when the LED lights turn on. So I wired a 50k ohm resistor across the on/off switch terminals of my LED lights. So when the LED switch closes, there should be 3 volts across the resistor (resistor in parallel with LEDs). I verfied that the 3 volts is seen at the input of the board. I also verified that the control center software returns a value of 658 on channel 7. However, a similar value is also seen by channel 8 when channel 8 has nothing even connected to it yet. How do I isolate the two inputs. I am trying to control two servos’s positions depending on the status of inputs on channel 7 and channel 8. My script tells it to compare channel 7 and channel 8 and to move the servos if both channels are equal. Can you please also give me tips of how to stream line or improve the script so its more efficient Any help is greatly appreciated!

begin  
   3600 0 servo #initialize servo positions
   2500 1 servo #initialize servo positions
   button_right button_left LOGICAL_AND if close endif #compares the channel 7 and channel 8 values
repeat

#turns the input value into 0 or 1
sub button_right
  7 get_position 500 GREATER_THAN
  return

#turns the input value into 0 or 1
sub button_left
 8 get_position 500 GREATER_THAN
  return

#close the sero arms
sub close
  8400 0 servo
  8200 1 servo 
return

Hello.

This is expected behavior. Since channel 8 has not been connected to anything yet, it is called a floating input and its value will get affected by other pins on the chip. You should not read or rely upon the input value of a floating input.

–David