Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

So AndyMark doesn't have to deal with shipping (as many of) them during build season.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

My understanding is that a number of teams have budgetary restrictions that limit when they can spend their money. There were a number of requests to provide the hardware "early" so that the money was spent in Q4 2014 instead of Q1 2015.

It may also be convenient for teams to have the hardware in hand on kick-off instead of waiting for shipping after kick-off.

Perhaps work with a beta team to gain experience before kick-off. That is part of their mission.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

All programs in all languages will run as lvuser.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

This is kind of a nitpicky thing to complain about.

Even without the ability to do much with them, getting them in hands and paid for well before season is nice.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

I disagree. We received ours today, and I was definitely planning on working it into a drive-base for some experience before kickoff. Yes, it is nice having it on hand - but after paying in full I absolutely feel it should be functional - not just a slick looking month-long paperweight.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

Would you prefer not getting it until after kickoff?

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

Fixed that for you.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

Perhaps....we're getting one AT kickoff - so unless it's defective, we won't truly need the second one until the very end of build, when both the practice robot and the competition robot are both running. 90% of the reason we pre-ordered was to work with it before kickoff - to get that "unknown" out of the way. The remaining 10% was in case there was some defect with the KOP unit.

I'm still kind of in disbelief...can we really do nothing with it until kickoff?

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

You can figure out mounting and wiring in advance of kickoff.

You can ssh into it and play around with the OS and filesystem.

You can devise and test out 3d-printable accessories.


You just won't be able to run a robot with it until you get the development software in the Kit of Parts.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

If you let me borrow your time machine, there are various ways to fix this. But mine is on the fritz.

Greg McKaskle

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

You get the time machine or the week expander. But not both. :)

I am a little disappointed not to get the software, but the more I think about the more I understand the logic. Releasing it without the support structure in place would do more harm than good. The support structure should be eating, getting lots of rest, for when kick off comes...

Anyway we are going to have the new stuff built up on an old robot so when kick off comes, the programmers can get right to work. It will keep them from getting underfoot. :eek: I am starting to like this plan. :]

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

No problem. Right after I kill Hitler and tell Ben Franklin the electrons go the other way.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

Eh, not really. We are geared to ship many things during build season, so this is not a big deal.

Yes, this is true. We had a large demand for teams to be able to buy these back in June so that they could use their 2014 school year budget money on hardware they know they will need in 2015.

Also, the biggest benefit for us and National Instruments to allow advance orders is to accurately determine the number of extra units produced in addition to the units given to the teams in the kits. We really had no idea how many extra units would be purchased as extras, so allowing advance sales helped us determine that number.

Andy B.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

Beta test teams are still testing new software releases and helping find bugs. If something would have been released now, it wouldn't be fully debugged, and FIRST/NI wouldn't be ready to support it yet.

Re: roboRIO shipped today
 

The most dangerous phrase in any language: " Let's kill Hitler."

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

I'm not associated with an FRC team this year, but am very glad that the RoboRIO hardware is out in the wild well before kickoff. I've had some idea for accessories that I've been meaning to test out...