Quote:
Originally Posted by billw
Perhaps this is explained somewhere, and I have missed it (very likely). If so, please just redirect me to the appropriate source.
Questions:
1. Is the "FTC Controller Station software" different than the "Field Management System?"
2. Are one or both of these available for in-house testing?
3. The RobotC template says that it is a "dual-mode" program and that separate versions should be used for autonomous and teleop modes. I understand the logic within the template, but I am unclear as to how to the switch between modes will occur. Are we building to separate executables that will be loaded in turn? If so, is this a manual process? Or is there an automated mechanism (using predefined file names?) that will handle this?
Thanks for any help.
--Bill Wiley
Coach, Acme Robotics FTC #12-15
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I am about 95% sure about my answers. If you know I am wrong, please feel free to correct me.
1. The Control Station software is the software that your team/members will write. That is the code that tells the joysticks and the buttons what to do. The field management simply switches the robots between disabled, autonomous, and teleop periods. To make sure that this is done simultaneously to all 4 robots on the field, a field management system is used.
2. The field management system simply switches between autonomous and teleop codes, it does not alter them in any way. Thus, there really is no need for the field management system to be released to the public. Teams can switch between the modes manually.
3. Generally, at the electronic table, there is an interface where the people at the table manually start teleop and auto for all 4 robots simultaneously. If you've ever watched any of the match videos you will notice the announcer counting down, that is to help the people at the table to switch into different modes at the proper time.
If you simply write the code you are using into the place provided inside the template, you will be fine. If you change any of the template layout, the field system might not communicate with your system properly and thus that may cause major problems come time for competition.
Hope this helped and I hope I was right about how almost all of it worked. ;D.