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Unread 16-02-2005, 08:41
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Re: Receiving info from OI to select autonomous mode

Quote:
Originally Posted by dlavery
Actually, this would not work. A similar question came up in another thread, so I asked Tony Norman at IFI exactly how and when various data may be passed between the OI and RC. Tony double-checked and said that the field control system will not allow any data to be passed between the OI and the RC prior to the start of the match and the completion of the autonomous period. The OI and RC will both be active, but the field control system (which is different this year than last year) will prevent them from communicating.
Tony Norman and the IFI documentation disagree.

It sounds like Tony is describing autonomous mode, not disabled mode. With the documented features of the system, I know of no way to prevent the kind of communication required to implement a mode switch on the OI. If FIRST is using an undocumented "uber-disable" mode while the robots are being placed on the field, a whole lot of teams will be surprised to find they have no autonomous mode selection control.

The recent FAQ on the IFI site also contradicts Mr. Norman. It explicitly approves the kind of OI automode selection asked about in this thread. (It gets a technical detail incorrect, though -- disabled mode doesn't set the RC PWMs to 127, it turns them completely off.)