New PDB info?
 

Hi everyone,

So from my understanding there will be a new Power Distribution Board for the 2015 control system. It is pretty much the same, just shorter. However I can't find any info on it. So my questions:

-Is it required? or can you still use the older long one?
-Who makes it? Total Electronics makes the current one.
-WHERE CAN I FIND THE CAD/DRAWINGS? <-- Big one, this is for a personal project.

Thanks in Advance

Re: New PDB info?
 

-Is it required? or can you still use the older long one?
We won't know until the 2015 rules come out. Just like the old board, I fully expect every team will get one in their KoP.
-Who makes it? Total Electronics makes the current one.
I'm not 100% positive on this one... maybe CTRE? I know they're making several other items for the control system as well.
-WHERE CAN I FIND THE CAD/DRAWINGS? <-- Big one, this is for a personal project.
I don't think you can find them, yet. The device hasn't been commercially released. Thus far, the Alpha Test teams only have the bare boards with no enclosure.

Re: New PDB info?
 

This is the correct answer, but I am guessing that it will be required because of its data logging capabilities.

Correct. Cross the Road Electronics

Re: New PDB info?
 

Hope CTRE does some rigorous testing...including overloading and environmental testing to make sure that PDB holds up for short term overloads and is not affected by temp changes.

Re: New PDB info?
 

As high-quality as their other products have proven to be, I have no doubt the new PDB will be rock solid.

Re: New PDB info?
 

987 is one of the alpha test teams and so far the new control system is great. It's a little bit easier to understand, and its designed specifically for FRC. IIRC, the cRio was used for crash testing before it found a use in FRC.

We just received Rev C. of the new main board and it looks awesome. Everything is a lot more compact and user-friendly.

The PDB they gave us looks quite a bit smaller than the current ones, but it also doesn't have a case/shell on it. The dimensions I could give you would be useless because it will change, but as of right now I would say it is going to be smaller than the current one.

I'm pretty sure we can post pictures of it because we had to display it at the regional events we attended. I'll see if I can get our programmer to upload some later if he can. After a quick Google search you can see renders of the new Rio in its case, but no specs that I'm aware of.

Looks like The Fighting Pi has pictures and stuff up on their website about the new control system here.

I believe I read something about them adding more teams for Beta testing, but I might be wrong about that. Don't hold me to it.

Re: New PDB info?
 

What I'm working on is based around the mounting of the board.

So I will probably have to wait for CAD to do what I need. Thank you though. I will try to do some work based off those pics

Re: New PDB info?
 

This picture from 1718's webpage should give you very close to what you need. If you look at the 4 "pockets" on the corners of the PCB, that is where 1/4-20 through holes would be in the plastic housing. The measuring tape in the picture should tell you the hole-hole spacing, which appears to be about 7.125 inches. Maybe this would give you enough for your project?



-Mike

Re: New PDB info?
 

The cRIO is used in a myriad of solutions, FRC being one of them. We have an "Application Spotlight" portion of our website, which shows some of the latest uses of the cRIO if you're interested (an exhaustive list is too overwhelming):

http://www.ni.com/compactrio/applications/

The new RoboRIO is a really nice purpose-built variation of our myRIO and cRIO-9068 products for robotics applications (and FIRST), but the overall guts and technology is the same. I'm really looking forward to what teams may use the RoboRIO for OUTSIDE of the FRC competition structure!

-Danny

Re: New PDB info?
 

I will say, coolest use of a cRIO I've ever been involved with was working in a fuel cell lab and using one of data logging of the performance of a custom built H2 powered go cart. Sometimes I miss that job...

Re: New PDB info?
 

To tell you the truth, I really think the cRIO is a bit overpowered. A typical microcontroller can do a multitude of things, from datalogging to high-precision motor control. The reason why I like the cRIO in FRC is because of it's networking capabilities. It is much easier to deploy a WiFi network than to deploy some general purpose radio technology. Also, the cRIO has a little bit of oomph, making it possible to do some advanced things like image recognition. However, for this, I would use a Linux SoC because those are inexpensive and even the cheapest ones are more powerful than the cRIO PPC.

I cannot wait till next year because the cRIO will have much more processing power. That will make it possible to run more intensive robot applications. I want to automate as much of the robot as in the scope of a high schooler as possible before I graduate, so it will be important for there to be a powerful enough processor to run all the required servers!

I really like how cRIO control system will be so much simpler to implement now! It was confusing and required a ton of space to place both the cRIO and the DS. It also took a decent amount of space to place the bridge.

I will have to give that to Team NI because it now really starts to be clicking in that NI has been designing products specifically for FRC. We never needed the cRIOs to be strong enough to withstand the worst of the collisions because the G-Forces hardly become that high!

One thing that I am wondering about, though, is the serial capabilities. I would really like a bit more information, more specifically:
-Logic Levels (1.8|3.3|5|6|12)
-ports -- will there be available RS232?
-UART -- Probably there. Is is easy to access?
-i2C -- Probably there. Is it easy to access?
-Any other serial bidirectional ports/protocols?

Also, how is the new Java SE VM working? Does it by chance have the java.net package?

Also, do we by chance know a bit more about the release dates? Will it be released before the season starts so the teams can learn it?

Re: New PDB info?
 

Have you ever measured the impact forces of an FRC robot? I believ you'd find they can be higher than you think.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30419

RS232 on the board, TTL serial on the MXP. 1x I2C and 1xSPI on the board, 1 more of each on the MXP. 2x USB host, potentially 1 taken up by a USB radio (depending on wireless solution).

The alpha libraries look very similar to the existing libraries, so they'll be just as easy to access as they are right now.

Standard Java 8 SE Embedded for ARM

From everything I've heard, I'm not hopeful about software for non-beta teams before kickoff.

Re: New PDB info?
 

Re: New PDB info?
 

Not to undermine CTRE's quality or their products, based on reported issues with early versions Talons, hope is the only thing I got. Hope IRI and other events prove that these things are field reliable. Testing in shop is different than on field, there are so many factors that can go wrong.

Re: New PDB info?
 

What problems were those? Do you have links?