Kinect Setup Problems
 

Our team has decided to use a Microsoft Kinect to communicate to our robot when to execute its autonomous code which will make it drive forward and score. This is so we may score in the hot goal every time, and yes the use of the Kinect is legal.

We have had trouble setting up the Kinect however. We have installed the 2013 Driver Station Software and FRC 2014 updates. We went to First Forge and downloaded the most recent version of the 2013 FRC Kinect Server Setup and installed the Kinect Server. We have installed the Microsoft Kinect SDK and we have installed the Drivers(we suspect this was a problem). We also have in our code "opened" the kinect within our code within the begin section as well. We receive a signal stating our kinect is connected to our computer (the kinect status turns green on our operation screen in the driver station) but in our diagnostics screen the kinect icon under USB devices is not green and the refresh button next to it hasn't done anything.

Do you guys have any ideas for what could possibly be going wrong? Was there an error in any of our steps? We kind of suspect the drivers are our trouble so if you have any useful information about them or this kinect setup process in general your answers would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

That sounds like the "Known Issue" posted under the FRC Driver Station seciotn here: http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/...d-known-issues

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

Be sure when you build this DS, you have both power(s) to do it.

• The laptop has to have decent specifications to run it without lag. Quad Core with good speed RAM helps out. USB 3.0 also has a marked improvement.
• Also, with the addition of a power plug to the field you will have power to the Kinect. There is a downside that the Kinect drains the battery faster on your laptop. Rigging up a power strip, a travel size one if the rules allow, on your DS board could come in handy.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

Thanks for the advice, but our computer is fine. We have been powering both the kinect and the laptop with chargers with their own outlets. We will make sure to bring an extra portable power strip for the competition (that hadn't occured to us yet!) Thank you.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

So does this mean it may never recognize its connection with the kinect?!?!? The kinect is not recognized on our driver station within the joystick setup box. The kinect status on the right side of the diagnosics tab states, "Kinect: Timeout" this is interesting because it says that whether it's plugged in or not.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

Our experience has been that you'll get a red icon on the diagnostic screen, but otherwise everything else works properly. Look for the green outline of the Kinect for operation and a green stickman for recognition of individuals. If the driver's station has been sitting for a while (hours?) we've had to unplug and replug the USB on the Kinect to get it working.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

Interesting, I believe we did have the "kinect status" green and the skeleton figure outlined at one point, but we thought it was an issue that the indicator lights and our usb connections in the joystick setup box didn't register our connection with the kinect. We'll try some stuff (possibly using a driver station version that worked better before) and get back to you guys if we have any more problems. Thank you.

Re: Kinect Setup Problems
 

Thank you Jefferson we did get our Kinect working part of the time when we practiced with our robot on the practice/ build day before the competition.

We programmed it to drive forward 3 seconds to reach the low goal then there was a two second window for the kinect to recognize whether my hands were "up" or not (we had a set value) and if it recognized the as "up" it shot right then. If it did not then it shot in the last five seconds anyway.

We tested this on blocks in our pit and it worked part of the time. We never actually got it to work in our practice matches nor our qualifiers (we gave up by elims). When we tested on blocks, the wheels would spin forward and then the rollers (We used rollers to shoot) would sometimes respond after that to shoot if I wanted, but sometimes not. It would also shoot when we practiced if the kinect didn't recognize my hand position but when we got to the matches and were connected to the FMS it often wouldn't shoot at all, the kinect shot or our backup "shoot in the last five seconds code" and we couldn't figure out why. It recognized a skeleton during our matches but I believe it could've been confused because there were often people nearby and behind us.