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Unread 30-04-2009, 14:52
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Alan Anderson Alan Anderson is offline
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FRC #0045 (TechnoKats)
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Re: Power Driver Station with Serial

Quote:
Originally Posted by jtkellertx View Post
The competition port was a D-sub connector though, wasn't it? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I'm really trying to find out.

But anyways, I can almost remember seeing some FIRST documentation on it. I'll try to dig it up and post it for you.
The only official documentation I know of is in section 3 of the FRC Control System manual.

Quote:
Competition Port – Connects to the Field Management System through a DE9 connector to provide power and enable/disable during competition. Pinouts for this connector are in section
The text in the manual stops without identifying the section. Section 3.1.7 is labeled "Competition Port Pinouts" but has very little actual pinout information.

Quote:
The competition port is used to enable / disable the robot. A “dongle” is provided in the Kit of Parts for teams to use for this purpose when not in a competition. If teams need to make a replacement dongle or need additional spare dongles, a team-constructed dongle can be fashioned by connecting pins 8 and 9 of the competition port to a switch. NOTE: it is essential that the other pins of the connector be left unconnected, as some of the other pins contain power and/or ground – accidentally shorting other pins of this connector can permanently damage the Driver Station.
If you really want to power your Driver Station through the competition port connector, you can very easily check for continuity between the power input jack and specific pins on the port.