Simple Crosshair
 

Hi I am a rookie programmer who barely started using labview. I basically finished all my controls including the kinect so I was wondering if it was possible to add a simple + crosshair to the video camera feed. I have the camera directly to the router not cRio. So is there a way I can do this without to much complication.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

The simple way is to place tape on on the screen. When you open the driver user, the drive station will default to the same place every time.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

Is there a way I can program something..

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

The first step is to open the Getting Started Window of LabVIEW. It is up when you first launch and it is available from the View menu. Create a project based on the Dashboard template.

When built, that code will create the same thing as the initial installation.

There are a couple ways to add crosshairs. One, go to the panel, right click in open space and choose lines from the decoration palette.Place and size the lines, color them if you need to. You could use rectangles if you wanted thicker lines.

The second approach is to add the lines into the image programmatically. Go to the diagram and find the loop near the top that Reads the MJPG and the next step it does is clear the overlays. Instead, you want to right click on the Clear and choose Replace Overlay and choose the Line function. Copy it and hook up another. Hook up the parameter values to describe the line endpoints and color.

To test it, stop the other dashboard EXE and run your VI using the run arrow. To build it into an EXE, you go to the bottom of the project window, open the Build Specifications, and right click and Build. The resulting dialog will tell you where the EXE was saved. Copy it to the Program Files/FRC Driver Station folder and you are good to go. The DS will launch yours next time it starts up.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

I did A similar technique last year.

what I did was I used the "draw rectangle" overlay block twice, one for each crosshair. I did it this way so I could adjust the thickness...

It also was linked to the tilt servo position so it would automatically rotate the image when the camera passed 90 degrees... it also changed the crosshairs to a set of parallel lines that could be used to line up with the minibot pole.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

You know the Kinect is only used during the first 15 seconds of the match, correct? I apologize if that seems a silly question.

HTH

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

It does seem very silly. I think you posted in the wrong thread.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

After I create a dashboard project, how do I deploy it?

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

If I'm correct, you would open a program called the "FRC Driver's Station" once your computer is connected to the robot, Once that's open you would also launch a separate program called "FRC Dashboard," although I think the Driver's Station would open up both.Then launch the cRIO Robot Project, then deploy it (from RobotMain). You need to launch these in order to run the robot, so I hope I helped you in some way.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

From the Project Explorer window

Build Specifications -> FRC PC Dashboard right-click and choose Build

It's going to put the new Dashboard in the project folder under builds. Something like:

My Documents\LabVIEW Data\builds\FRC Dashboard Project\FRC PC Dashboard

You can test it by running it from there, but for competition it'll need to get copied to the folder C:\Program File\FRC Dashboard

There are several common variations:

1. You can change the Destination Directory under Properties for the build specification. That will automatically put your Dashboard in the FRC Dashboard folder.
2. You can change where the Driver Station looks for the Dashboard program. That's defined in an ASCII file located at: C:\Users\Public\Documents\FRC\FRC DS Data Storage.ini (shouldn't be edited while the Driver Station app is running).

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

assuming you do dev on a separate computer, you just need to copy the three files that the build will spit out into the dashboard folder on your driver station.

If memory servers, its just in the x86 programs folder.

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

Thank you!!

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

Is there a way to disable the snap-to-grid when drawing lines on the panel?

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

Hit the <g> key to toggle it

Greg McKaskle

Re: Simple Crosshair
 

I was wondering, how did you get the lines to change from crosshairs to parallel.