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Unread 09-02-2010, 15:36
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VEX Robotics Engineer
AKA: Arthur Dutra IV; NERD #18
FRC #0148 (Robowranglers)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Rookie Year: 2002
Location: Greenville, TX
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Re: The increasing amount of pre-canned code

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1075guy View Post
We went from an 8bit MCU running at 20MHz with a few K of ram, to a 32bit processor, running at 400MHz with a boatload of ram, for the SAME application. Yes, there were some teams that had started to push the limitations of the IFI system, but the cRIO seems a bit like driving a finishing nail with a sledgehammer. Sure, it works, but is it REALLY the right tool for the job?
For every programmer that wants to write their own interrupt service routines, work with ADCs and digital I/Os at the register level, or write their own USART/RS232/SPI/I2C communication functionality, there's probably a dozen more that struggle to barely make their robot drive.

Assets like WPILib, Kevin Watson's code, LabView, EasyC, etc. all help those dozen teams have a robot that they can drive around and actually do things with. But for that other one, open up the C++ or Java libraries and go code something cool.

If you want to teach your programmers low level stuff, go buy a PIC, MSP430, AVR, etc. and teach them how to set it up. Maybe even put it on a Vex/FTC robot and have them drive it around using the alternative controller.
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Art Dutra IV
Robotics Engineer, VEX Robotics, Inc., a subsidiary of Innovation First International (IFI)
Robowranglers Team 148 | GUS Robotics Team 228 (Alumni) | Rho Beta Epsilon (Alumni) | @arthurdutra

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