Netbook as Driver Station

[nickcvet89]

Hey, our team is planning to purchase a netbook to use as our driver station due to the classmate being an E09 and the years of use have deteriorated the battery to the point where it doesn't hold a charge for long. Would installing the DS software that came with labview be sufficient? Also is there inything in the rules that prevents us from doing this? Thanks for any help.

[propionate]

I have yet to see anything restricting what types of laptops can be used, but rest assured that a large number of teams use their own laptops for the driver's station. You can simply install the LabVIEW driver's station software on your computer of choice. Some resolution changes may be needed if you want it to fit nicely on the monitor though.

[Timekeeper00]

I would be careful buying a netbook as a driver station. The biggest reason would be the lack of processing power, which would be pretty important if you wanted to off-load something like vision processing to the driver station instead of doing it on the cRIO (which is always a good idea). The other reason I would avoid using a netbook would be the lack of screen real estate. If you wanted to put 2 video feeds at a useable size on something with a 10.1" monitor, you would have to use pretty much the entire screen.

As a side note, there is a charger for the Classmate at each driver station, is there not?


-Ti00

[Mark McLeod]

Details from FIRST on how to install the Driver Station on a non-Classmate (http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Robotics_Programs/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2012_Assets/Installingthe2012DriverStationonanon-ClassmatePC_Rev1.pdf)

Yes, the primary benefit of a Classmate is that chargers are provided for them on the field.
Non-Classmate laptops must run off battery power, so keep your laptop charged in the pits. No we cannot plug them into the field power.:rolleyes:

[Doug Norman]

You would need two installer pieces for the DS. From the National Instruments DVD installation you would choose "Install Only Driver Station Support". Then you download and install the Driver Station update from:
http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2263

[nickcvet89]

Ohh, ok thanks. We just feel it's time for a new DS