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Unread 06-08-2009, 09:23
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Francis-134 Francis-134 is offline
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FRC #0190 (Gompei and the Herd)
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Re: FRC 2010 Registration fees reduced

Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeyTNT280 View Post
A laptop PC as the driverstation. This is quite possibly the worst idea I've heard in a long time. If theres anything wrong with the laptop or the Program people could be seriously injured. Making mistakes pretty much isn't an option. I know you could make the argument that that could happen with every driver station but not like this, before the switch killed communications by just cutting the signal, if the Dongle Enable/Disable is a USB and the USB port isn't working and without any knowledge of such there could be injuries.
The good news is that if the robot does not detect a signal, or if the DS does not receive a specific "enable" command, it defaults to disabled. Any failures in the laptop are basically equally as likely to occur in any hardware DS. Also, the disable switch did not kill the signal, it simply closed a contact that told the DS in software to stop the robots.

In fact, the DS from last year was essentially a low-power computer running an OS with a bunch of software to control a robot. To me, this sounds like a laptop. FIRST probably decided to go with a laptop this year because it's only marginally more expensive than a normal DS, is much sturdier, and requires little to no R&D money.

A virtual driver station should be just as safe as a "hardware" driver station.
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