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Re: How many days do your programmers get with a fully built robot before stop build
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonKiddy
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Most of that day ends up being an electrical/mechanical QA session done by the programmers; talons aren't on the stated channels, wires aren't connected, etc. ...
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You don't have to wait until the last minute to check these things. As soon as every wire/cable get put into place, check it. If it doesn't match the spec, either tell the assembler to fix it, or decide to change the spec (and your code).
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJ
We design, test, and prototype code with other systems or older robots. ...
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Do this, "ignore" the mechanical parts of the old robot. and just ensure that the logic in your new code can make the right devices twitch in the correct sequences when that new code is given the correct sequences of inputs from a driver station, or from sensors. If the old (or FTC, VEX, Arduino, ...) robot has usable sensors, that is nice. If not, buy spare sensors (or at least spare cables), steal sensors off of this new robot, and/or create dummy sensors (in software) that inject recorded/simulated data into your new code.
Also, put lots of info into simple "configuration" files. Using those, practice moving your codes' core functions/objects from one robot to another by (mostly) only changing the configuration files. The result should evolve into an architecture (one that actually works in robots, in addition to looking pretty on whiteboards) that separates the stuff the robot and drive station mechanical teams might get wrong from the stuff the software team might get wrong; and the fixes for any mechanical mistakes should be (mostly) simple configuration file edits.
Blake
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Blake Ross, For emailing me, in the verizon.net domain, I am blake
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