2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

Greetings!

Can any of the 2011 control system beta testers comment on the selection of sensors? I.e., has the control of the Hi-Technic/Lego I2C sensors been improved? I'm just curious about what sensors are supported this year.

On a related note, has the CAN Jaguar support been integrated into the WPILib? Does this include working with the shaft encoder on the Jaguar?

TIA,

Mike

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

Honestly, 166 hasn't seen ANY difference in WPIlib. Sensors that we've tried are exactly the same as last year. We haven't tried Hi-Technic etc sensors, though.

CAN still isn't built in...

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

The I2C hardware implementation now supports a wider selection of sensors due to the addition of a compatibility mode which detects clock skewing more aggressively (at the expense of performance).

CAN support is in the process of being integrated. The next beta update will include it. I'm not sure when Brad is planning to release it. Last I heard it was going to be released 2 weeks ago. :eek: The CAN Jaguar support is not yet upgraded to support the new jag FW, but last years library is in the WPILib trunk awaiting release.

-Joe

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

What improvements are you hoping for? We have had no feedback on the implementation, and as such have not done anything to change it.

-Joe

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

HI Joe,

I'm just trying to see what of the full range of Hi-Technic sensors will be supported. We had some problems with the stability of the 2010 Gyro/Compass and we're looking to see how much of the FTC kit can be used this year.

Some of the newer Hi-Technic sensors like the magnetometer and the EOPD look really interesting if we can make them work with WPILib with a minimum of hassle. We also had a few problems with the I2C support in last year's WPILib, so we were looking to see if anything had changed.

TIA,

Mike

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

The Compass is the only one in the C++ library at the moment. I think there is a LabVIEW example for the Accelerometer that could be ported to C++. No Gyro, though. Don't have one.

All of the HiTechnic sensors should be pretty trivial to support... I just don't have any of them and no-one else has contributed drivers or hardware so far. Perhaps I'll dig around and try to find some of these devices in various NXT stashes that others have.

-Joe

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

If you could support the HiTechnic (FTC) Gyro, that would be great! I have a few of them lying around that my FRC team could use.

Re: 2011 C++ Beta Testers?
 

Not possible, I'm afraid... the Gyro from HiTechnic is an analog sensor. The digital sidecar (as it's name suggests) is for digital only... You could use the HiTechnic Gyro if you cut open an NXT sensor cable and wire it up to the Analog Breakout.

I'd be surprised if you got better performance from it than you do from the kit gyro, but I haven't tested it.

-Joe