[Mike Mahar]

There are two ways to download into the cRio. Both of them seem to require you to plug your computer into the operator's console Using an ethiernet connector. When you are debugging, there are some setup options in Workbench that tells workbench where your cRio is on the network. You will be assigned an IP address for your controller. example: 10.1.38.2 for team 138. Once this is set up, the downloading is done from Workbench with a single button push.
That down loads your program into RAM. YOUR PROGRAM WILL BE LOST IF YOU POWER DOWN THE CRIO.

The second method is for competition. The cRio has a 150 Meg flash drive built in. There is a magic filename that is automatically booted when the cRio powers up. There is a menu item that "Deploys" your program. What that does is basically ftp your program to that magic file. If you don't do this, your robot will just sit there when you power up.

I don't know if the debugger works with a "deployed" program. If it does, than teams should just always deploy. If it doesn't allow debugging with a deployed program, than teams will have to develop some discipline like checking that the robots boots before going out to the playing field.