PCA preprocess parameter in caret's train function - r

Question

I am conducting knn regression on my data, and would like to:
a) cross-validate through repeatedcv to find an optimal k;
b) when building knn model, using PCA at 90% level threshold to reduce dimensionality.
library(caret)
library(dplyr)
set.seed(0)
data = cbind(rnorm(20, 100, 10), matrix(rnorm(400, 10, 5), ncol = 20)) %>%
data.frame()
colnames(data) = c('True', paste0('Day',1:20))
tr = data[1:15, ] #training set
tt = data[16:20,] #test set
train.control = trainControl(method = "repeatedcv", number = 5, repeats=3)
k = train(True ~ .,
method = "knn",
tuneGrid = expand.grid(k = 1:10),
#trying to find the optimal k from 1:10
trControl = train.control,
preProcess = c('scale','pca'),
metric = "RMSE",
data = tr)
My questions:
(1) I notice that someone suggested to change the pca parameter in trainControl:
ctrl <- trainControl(preProcOptions = list(thresh = 0.8))
mod <- train(Class ~ ., data = Sonar, method = "pls",
trControl = ctrl)
If I change the parameter in the trainControl, does it mean the PCA is still conducted during the KNN? Similar concern as this question
(2) I found another example which fits my situation - I am hoping to change the threshold to 90% but I don't know where can I change it in Caret's train function, especially I still need the scale option.
I apologize for my tedious long description and random references. Thank you in advance!
(Thank you Camille for the suggestions to make the code work!)

Answer 1

To answer your questions:
I notice that someone suggested to change the pca parameter in
trainControl:
mod <- train(Class ~ ., data = Sonar, method = "pls",trControl = ctrl)
If I change the parameter in the trainControl, does it mean the PCA is
still conducted during the KNN?
Yes if you do it with:
train.control = trainControl(method = "repeatedcv", number = 5, repeats=3,preProcOptions = list(thresh = 0.9))
k = train(True ~ .,
method = "knn",
tuneGrid = expand.grid(k = 1:10),
trControl = train.control,
preProcess = c('scale','pca'),
metric = "RMSE",
data = tr)
You can check under preProcess:
k$preProcess
Created from 15 samples and 20 variables
Pre-processing:
- centered (20)
- ignored (0)
- principal component signal extraction (20)
- scaled (20)
PCA needed 9 components to capture 90 percent of the variance
This will answer 2) which is to use preProcess separately:
mdl = preProcess(tr[,-1],method=c("scale","pca"),thresh=0.9)
mdl
Created from 15 samples and 20 variables
Pre-processing:
- centered (20)
- ignored (0)
- principal component signal extraction (20)
- scaled (20)
PCA needed 9 components to capture 90 percent of the variance
train.control = trainControl(method = "repeatedcv", number = 5, repeats=3)
k = train(True ~ .,
method = "knn",
tuneGrid = expand.grid(k = 1:10),
trControl = train.control,
metric = "RMSE",
data = predict(mdl,tr))