Re: Co processor Question
 

You might also look at this board:DE0-NANO-SOC.

CPU is a dual core A9 @ 925 MHz, 1 GB DDR3 (32-bit wide) plus FPGA.

DISCLAIMER: I work for Intel (Altera).

Re: Co processor Question
 

Just learned about the Kangaroo. Since it is a Windows desktop, it can be treated much like a DB computer, so RoboRealm, LV examples, and much other SW will run on it and be easily debugged for it.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Co processor Question
 

And you're recommending an ARM CPU? Clearly they have not made you part of the Intel machine yet!

Re: Co processor Question
 

Heh heh.. I got my new badge only just yesterday.

However, I've also been told on numerous occasions that our SoC product line (e.g. the Cyclone V SoC on the DE0 Nano SoC board) will have a long life and will have new, ARM-based variants.

Anyhow, I do like this board. I sit beside the marketing guy who oversaw development and was happy to provide him suggestions during that time frame so that it would be useful to robotic applications. This includes the Arduino style headers. There are some things I'd fix on it, but overall, it is a very powerful little guy.

Re: Co processor Question
 

Do you know, off hand, about compatibility with Windows 10 IoT?

How much current at 5V?

Re: Co processor Question
 

I'll measure that tonight. The wall wart that comes in the kit is 2A @ 5V.

Scott

Re: Co processor Question
 

Anybody using the RPi 2? We were planning on using it this year, but not entirely sure it will be powerful enough.

Re: Co processor Question
 

I think the Raspberry Pi 2 is a fine board but our first adventure into visual processing was on a proper laptop. With the limited time I like to have more power than we need because that performance limit demands optimization. Thing is the difference in price from a $35 board to a $99 board, as long as the support needs do not get even larger, is not worth saving the money. Even at $300 it might still be worth the money.

Once we get into the $300 range you start getting into the laptop range. Starts not to make sense anymore. Just buy the laptop.

Re: Co processor Question
 

Size/Weight says keep the micro...hmm..... I need to look more into this kangaroo.

Re: Co processor Question
 

Ok, so rookie team, with a question: I thought everything had to be powered off the robot battery, so how can we use the Kangaroo with the integrated?

Re: Co processor Question
 

The rules for COTS devices allow you to put a device with a battery provided as part of the original COTS design on the competition field robots. Nothing indicates that the power for these devices must be controlled by the robot master breaker.

Since none of these devices are allowed to instruct the robot to move directly the risk to leaving it on is somewhat mitigated. A few years ago we put a netbook with an SSD minus the screen and keyboard on the robot and it was often left on then charged in the pits.

Of course if your device does not have a battery and you run an operating system that doesn't like being abruptly shut down, then you need to start a shutdown rapidly before you turn off the robot master breaker. The ODroid XU4 I mentioned above can boot in 20 seconds and shutdown faster than that. It also has a button one can use to start the shutdown without resorting to hooking up a mouse/keyboard/monitor. That button does require some software tweaking to work like that, normally it simply brings up the shutdown screen in Mate.

Re: Co processor Question
 

Under the custom circuitry rule, you can use a power supply to convert the battery voltage to a regulated voltage suitable for the end device provided doing so does not violate any other rules (e.g. R41, 24V limit)

The Kangaroo requires a 12V 3A input. I do not recommend a direct battery connection as the battery voltage can fluctuate wildly during a match. What you can do is acquire a 6-18V to 12V voltage regulator and use that for powering the Kangaroo.

On a related note, I have seen people add laptops to the robot powered by their internal battery under rule R31).

Re: Co processor Question
 

It makes little sense to try to charge the Kangaroo on the robot during a match. It has sufficient battery life on the COTS battery to survive the match and be charged in the pits easily.

This is the real weight and size value to it versus say the ODroid XU4. With the ODroid there's no COTS battery. So it must have power from the robot. It is very likely I can place in the footprint of the face of the Kangaroo the ODroid XU4 and the support power system but it will be heavier and thicker by some amount. On the other hand the USB to Ethernet dongle will make the face of the Kangaroo a little larger. Price wise the Kangaroo plus the USB to Ethernet dongle are in line with the price of the ODroid XU4, the case for it, and the old D-Link DC/DC converter. If one adds a boost converter to the Odroid XU4 system then the ODroid XU4 is slightly more expensive to use for this. Ubuntu on the ODroid is 32bit and Windows on the Kangaroo is 64bit. Not that I think the word width is the big issue here. The National Instrument software may work with the Kangaroo but with the ODroid XU4 you'll probably use OpenCV.

I am not sure how long the boot and shutdown on the Kangaroo are. If it is left on between matches it might not matter.

Re: Co processor Question
 

Woops, I missed that it had an internal battery.

If anyone has some vision benchmarks between ODroid, Kangaroo, and Tegra TK1, I'd be interested. As an aside, it is legal to use a 2nd RIO as a coprocessor (albeit expensively, R11)

Re: Co processor Question
 

Marshall posted some performance work on the Tegra in the past.
There are multiple ODroid boards so which ones interest you?
Which vision system on the Kangaroo?