NI: I know you are pouring a lot of money into FIRST and I thank you kindly for it, but, well, I guess this is sort of a reminiscent post, and without this paragraph would probably sound unappreciative. This is certainly not the case.
IFI:
The three years I was in
FIRST as a high school student were the final three years for the IFI robot controller ('06-'08). I had a FANTASTIC time learning about and writing code for the controller; the use of a Microchip (thanks microchip for all your money, effort, time as well) embedded processor added a great learning experience to robot construction for programmers. I know that the skills learned doing that close-to-the-machine coding necessary with the IFI RC proved useful for many who have since graduated from their respective teams. That is, at least it has been very useful for me. I'm still using Microchip processors for projects here at the U of I, at the moment to build an integrated control/monitor/datalogging system for a pulling tractor. Not sure I'd be able to program something like that up without all the experience I gained from working with the IFI RC. Also, in this age of multi-gigahertz processors, a little reality check about
how much you can do with 40 MHz is
never a bad thing.
Victors I believe will live on for many years to come. Perhaps not in
FIRST, but certainly in other robotics and process control applications. For the price they are (I won't hesitate to say) the best general purpose motor drives one can buy.
Thank you, IFI.
-q