The complete FIRST Programming manual project
 

Me and my friends are planning on writing a Hebrew manual that will cover all the aspects of FIRST Programming.

From what I have seen this year, a lot of the Israeli teams (especially the rookie teams) have a lot of trouble handling with the programming of their FIRST robot. This is caused by many reasons, the main ones I think are the lack of any technical help from mentors and professionals (as well as no one on the team having any programming experience) and the language barrier. Although everyone in Israel is obligated by law to learn English in School, the levels vary from school to school. The fact is, that most of the material about programming, electrical systems, sensors etc. are all in English. Because of that we are going to try to write up a complete manual that will be distributed to all the Israeli teams, preferably a month or so before kickoff (and of course if any other teams want a Hebrew manual we will send them one :D ).

I would really appreciate it if people could send their own materials that they wrote or links to any online resources that you think will be helpful. Except for all the basics of C programming and using all the different functions and variables, using sensors and the CMUcam and all that stuff, I would also like to include some of the less important stuff like dashboard programs, custom circuit programming, LCD interfacing, interrupts, interfacing with co-processors etc.

Thanks in advance
David
Email:

Re: The complete FIRST Programming manual project
 

Custom dashboard apps are an interesting challange.

The packet description included with the IFI dashboard is accurate. It's missing 1 important thing: how to tell OI packets from RC packets.

RC packets are interleaved regularly. That is: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...

OI packets have the same type as RC1 packets. If a number of these are recieved in a row, than you know that you are in OI mode. I prefer to use 3 OI packets to indicate this. It could be done with as little as two.

Also, the radio channel in the OI packets is what the OI uses. The radio channel in the RC packets is what the RC uses.

I believe that the dashboard is the raw data that is sent over the radios. An OI without a tether or a radio will send no data. An OI without a tether but with a radio (but no RC) will send OI packets but not RC packets.

One recomendation: wire a switch to replace the jumper. It makes your life much, much easier.

Re: The complete FIRST Programming manual project
 

Give me a topic to talk about :)

I'd also look up the PID whitepaper by Matt Krass, it really brings a seemingly large and cumbersome theory into simplified terms. Ask for his permission first, but I have no doubts he'll agree to it being included.

Re: The complete FIRST Programming manual project
 

In fact, here's your written permission right here, I don't speak many languages, just English and C, so I can't check it for you though, the math should be the same in any language though and that's what matters.