Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

I'd imagine it lies somewhere along the lines of using the default code that Kevin Watson provides. Tons of teams implemented the camera code he wrote for last year's game, but a quick glance through the comments reveals it was written well in advance of build season.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

On top of what Greg said here is another point. The code for the robot itself isnt generated before the 6 weeks. Just the code for a tool. From my understanding its just a development tool. It wount be on the robot during competition. So it no diffrent that say getting a screwdriver before the season (yes i know its an abstract thing). Its just a tool and no reason you cant work on a tool before the season.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

We're not providing any control code, or anything to make a robot function, just code to retrieve information from a device, it's no different than the code IFI provides to retrieve analog info from the ADCs, or the code Kevin provides to retrieve information from the camera. It doesn't "do" anything, like move the robot, or shoot a ball, so we feel it's not in violation of the rules.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

I think what needs to be recognized here is the spirit of the rule, and not the wording. This is intended, like Kevin's code, to be a free, openly available tool that has been developed to increase the capability, and improve the learning curve of new, or limited resource teams. And, when it comes to software, most teams have limited resources.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

Hi! Guys as I mentioned before that I did a similar project. When I was doing this, I found that the most expensive part of this project is LCD itself. If you have a smal LCD Panel than you first need to create a cross-platform between a C language and the language required to program the LCD panel itself. Also, if it is a small screen which costs about I don't know around $50? Is not going to help a lot since you can't display a lot of information. What I would suggest is if you guys can do something what we did last year. We used table PC but you guys can use laptop also if no one on team has tablet. Have the COM Port on laptop communicate with the control system in real time so you always have the information such as co-ordinate values, velocity, sensor values, motor values, current flow in robot and etc monitored at all the times. If you guys don't want to do lot of hard work than their is always IFI dashboard we can use. But I would say this would be a challenge. ;)

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

I think they are planning on using like a 2x20 character screen ($20) to save money enstead of on an OLED screen. But i could be wrong. An OLED could be really cool.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

We don't actually know what we're going to use yet, that's why we want your feedback! The LCD module will be an expansion, so if teams don't want it, they can skip, or maybe get a smaller one for less cost, but to offer options we need to know which you want, so keep this stuff coming, it's good stuff :)

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

I want 2 x 6 inch color touch screens. One to show camera tracking and the other for other info. :p

On a serius note, I am trying to get the parts together, but I would like to get a small screen outputing camera info. Both for coolness and debugging. This screen looks like a very good option for you. One $20, not to heard to interface and some example AVR code already written.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

I think a regular 4x20 would be great. They are easy to get and fairly cheap.

I'm also curious about the possability of using graphic LCD modules...something like this http://www.crystalfontz.com/products...AG160128BYYHTZ

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

Cool, but ouch. $76 :(

Oh the possiblities. So mcuh cool stuff and info you could display on that.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

Alot of teams are used to SparkFun, but you could probably do better price wise.


20x4 LCD with Backlight

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

That's the kind of LCD we were looking it.

Question, does anyone think they'd be interested in a button controlled UI or just having a fixed output screen on the LCD showing certain things?

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

Buttons would be nice. They dont have to be integrated onto the LCD board like some are. If you keep them separated you leave the ability to add more buttons later if you wish to for some reason.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

If I'm gonna go so far to implement an LCD on the robot, I'd go whole-hog on it with the buttons.

Re: pic: Thousands of manhours of work... coming '07
 

Well folks, we seem to have generated quite a buzz here, and it's about to get louder. This mysterious device, all you know is its a navigation system and it's designed to be easy to use. But is it really easy to use? We think so, but the only way to know how easy it is to use, and how effective it is is to let teams try it. But it's not quite ready, it's working, but it's a bit messy, so we've decided to do a beta test.

We're looking for about 20 teams to disclose full drawings, full code, software, everything you need to build a prototype unit and use it on a competition robot. We're looking at a price point in the high 200s, due to the limited number of parts being ordered. Teams involved will have to be willing to try out new technology, and send us feedback. They will receive personal email support from the developers (Mike Sorrenti and I) as well.

We want to keep a small number of teams for a few reasons, mostly because support for a lot of teams is difficult, and we don't want the plans getting out until its been thoroughly bug-tested by some adventurous guinea--err beta-testers.

How much interest is there out there for a test group like this?