Quote:
Originally Posted by Bongle
Which is why all my posts have said "make it so the operator control software doesn't work between mid-feb and the 1st week of competition"
Even better alternate: make it so the cRio firmware won't run between mid-feb and at competition. Have a "competition dongle" or something that must be installed at competition to make it work. Permit cRios to work after the championship date. People could use past year's firmware all the time (so past robots would be available for demos and whatnot), but if they flash to whatever the latest firmware is, it'd be restricted to the current season's dates. This could also be used to enforce fix-it windows.
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This would have two effects. First, it would put an end to the current allowance in the manual that lets teams develop software at any time. Not allowing them to run it on the C-Rio pretty much stops them from being able to test it and work on it in general. Let's face it, software often gets pushed to the very end of build season (and beyond). Maybe the goal is to make everything fit into 6 weeks, and if it doesn't "too bad," but I for one don't think it's a bad idea to let programmers tinker with the code before competition, build season or not.
Second, this wouldn't do anything to stop practice robots. If this restriction were in place, I would advocate very heavily on my team for them to create a practice robot, and run it with either an old C-Rio or a Arduino or something. Practice robots aren't just for practicing, they're mechanical systems development tools too. And it would create a massive "they're cheating because they're using a practice robot!" uproar when top teams do just that to stay competitive.