Competition Port
 

Ok, I have two questions about the competition port pins.

First, we are working on an older robot for a demo. We have the choice between year 2000 OI and year 2002 OI. Both of course didn't have autonomus back when the were made. So if i were to make a disable switch would it use the same pins as it does on the newer OI's? We were thinking about letting some people out of the crowd drive the robot to have some fun, and we thought it would be safe to have a disable switch.

Second, are there any pins on the competition port that put out power? If so, do you know how much voltage it puts out? I had the idea of putting some LED's in a clear switch box (auton, disable, practice), kinda to make it glow :) . Also, what pin should i use for the ground of the LED's? By the way, this information i would want for the newer OI's.

Thanks,
Larry Johnston

Re: Competition Port
 

Hey i may sound like a broken record here but please only connect to the pins that are labled at the IFI Comp Port Pin Out Guide because connecting to other pins can damage your OI unit. If you would like to make a "glowing effect" in your box with leds, i would suggest you to make a completly seperate circuit that would run off a 9 volt battery.

Re: Competition Port
 

Since these are old, if you can't figure out the pins, would it be possible to make a disable function in the program itself? (forgive me, i'm new, I don't even know if you did a lot of programming back then).

Re: Competition Port
 

The pinout is the same--but the autonomous-specific things are considered reserved (no connection) instead.

The small battery is a better idea. Though it is possible to draw enough to light several LEDs when the OI is running from AC (via a 9 V DC adapter), when the OI is tethered, the OI will not light the LEDs on the switch box. (And I don't remember which pin--there's a white paper floating around authored by Joe Johnson, which describes the "yellow dongle", a competition port switch--it should have the information.)

The 2002 model can be updated with new firmware which enables autonomous mode operation. Talk to IFI for details. (The 2000 model, though very similar, probably has subtle internal differences which preclude this.)

Re: Competition Port
 

It's been a while since we tried it, but I'm nearly certain that pre-2003 OIs would actually accept the autonomous switch, and even send the autonomous signal to the robot (i.e. you can use 2002's OI to control a 2003 robot, with autonomous and everything). The only difference is that you won't see the rapid flashing of the disabled LED that indicates autonomous mode on 2003's OI.

Re: Competition Port
 

I thought that a 2002 model needed a firmware update to support autonomous mode. Weren't the 2002s physically identical to the 2003s, but needed to be sent back to IFI for reprogramming if you wanted to do autonomous (introduced in 2003)?

Re: Competition Port
 

I remember the firmware update to the '02 version wasn't necessary for passing the autonomous bit itself. That was just one of the "growth" bits IFI already had reserved for future use and was already passed but not used for anything in '02. I believe what the firmware update changed was to actually cut off access to the OI inputs while the autonomous bit was set, e.g., the Joystick values were all forced to 127, etc.
You might have to take into account that the OI control values will still be passed, for instance, by explicitly setting the OI inputs to neutral values at the beginning of your autonomous section of code. Then again your autonomous code probably will be ignoring those values anyway.

Re: Competition Port
 

Pin 1 on the competition port is hooked directly to +5 on the OI.
However doing so will void your warranty. Pin 8 is ground.

Re: Competition Port
 

Ok, thank you. I have the disable switch working, and i am going to probably hook up the LEDs later.

Thanks,
Larry :) :cool:

Re: Competition Port
 

I still would suggest you make an led circuit run off of a 9 volt battery. If you do run the leds off of pins on the oi's comp port and any damage done in the future or and work you would like done to that oi, including upgrading firmware can be rejected by ifi even if your paying for it due to you fooling with the pins. Your choice should be thought about before you play with "fire" by running leds off of the comp port.