Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

Ok, i'm a sophmore and last year's CRio was a large white module. This year i opened the kit and i found a small board that looked sorta like the main circuit board is that really the new CRio?

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

Wow... This is a really confusing post... but I guess that's an indication of how confused you are. :)

Only Rookie teams received a new cRIO in their kit. See here. Veterans are expected to reuse the cRIO and several other key components from year to year.

The cRIO is not white... it's gun metal grey. It has those blue and grey modules that plug into it. I can't think of any large white module last year.

I believe what you found in your kit (if it came in a white plastic case) is a Cypress First Touch Kit 003. This device is expected to be plugged into the classmate Driver Station to provide I/O to knobs or buttons, etc that your team uses on a custom driver console.

-Joe

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

If it helps at all, there's a picture of the cRIO and several modules on this page.

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

i firgued it out..hah the box i was refering to was one of the digital sidecars. Got it going now. Though i dont quite understand the breadboard yet. I have an even better question now are the XBOX 360 controllers compatible again??

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

The breadboard is just there to provide the some prototyping space for wiring to the Cypress FTK3.

Just install the XBox controller drivers in the developer account.

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

Oh really, this works now?! Great, a lot of people will be happy about that! And this makes sense because you can do that with the Classmate. So, is that all that needs to be done? Have you tried this? How do you know that there's not any more interfacing you need to do? Will it work for the WPI joystick libraries?

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

I've heard wired Xbox 360 controllers can be used. I personally am not a fan of them as the joysticks do not return to exactly the center when released, so you'd have to program in a deadband for the joysticks, decreasing your range of motion. I would recommend a Logitech gamepad if you go that route.

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

we have extra's from FTC which i could use

Re: Little Blue Box.. New CRio???
 

Yeah, we've used a Logitech one in the past. Very simple and down to earth, works great. Xbox controlers look cooler though :) We'll have to weigh our options.

Thanks again!