[Deetman]

Originally Posted by Racer26

Truth be told: I'd like to see FIRST open-source the full FMS, complete with Audience overlay screens Results screens and current season scoring components.

I don't think they need to help us set it up (I realize it requires SQL Server and such)

HQ won't give you the FMS with a field borrowed for an offseason unless you have an FTA. It seems to me, from nearly every offseason I've experienced, that most of them have an FTA and get the full FMS.

I understand the concerns about open-sourcing FMS possibly exposing weak points, and opening the door to the possibility of more Einstein-2012 type debacles, but I believe that by open-sourcing it, such vulnerabilities are much more likely to be found and fixed before Bad Things (TM) happen.

A few factors at play here I think, one of which is all of the extra code for interfacing with the networking equipment and PLCs around the field. I'd imagine that this is setup/coded to work with one configuration and that is what FIRST uses for the field. This equipment isn't cheap and FIRST doesn't have the time or the staff to support FMS.

Another factor, although much more speculative, is that FMS is proprietary and gives FIRST a competitive advantage over other programs. Sure, nothing that FMS does is groundbreaking, but it still represents an investment that FIRST has made and doesn't want to give that investment out for free to others.

The best approach to this would likely be to continue the approach towards developing a third party open source FMSLight for use. I seem to remember reading a paper that had defined the interface from Driver Station <-> FMS <-> Robot somewhere that looked to be quite complete.