Expanding The Dashboard on 2 Screens? +Mecanum question

[GuyM142]

Is it possible to expand the dashboard to two screens?
I'd like to have one screen to show the camera and the other to show robot data.

and another question:
In which way can I track a mecanum robot's position while not driving forward or backward?
Can I do it using an accelerometer & a gyro? how so?

Thanks!

[Arhowk]

. . . Yes?
If you're using a non-classmate, than just drag the dashboard to the other screen.

If you're using a classmate you have to do it in developer mode.

Keep in mind a second monitor may be extremely inconvenient on the operator console.

As to your second question I don't know what you're referring to. If you mean diagnol than it would just be adding the left and right wheels together (though some trig may have to be used to fix the length of the triangle formed by the wheels)

[adciv]

What language are you programming in? In labview, it is possible to open a second window and place the 2nd one on the 2nd screen. I'm not sure about other languages.

In which way can I track a mecanum robot's position while not driving forward or backward?

Can you be more specific as to what you mean by this and what you intend to use it for?

[Greg McKaskle]

To clarify, do you intend to have multiple computers, or a computer with a second monitor?

Either way, it is pretty easy to either run multiple programs, and all languages support having multiple windows spread around on the different monitors, but none of the frameworks do it by default.

Please give more details on what you want the DB to be and I can give a more specific suggestion.

Greg McKaskle

[GuyM142]

I want to have an external screen connected to the computer which will show additional data.
Will it work using two different dashboard programs?

And as for the mecanum,
I would like to know the position of the robot on a x, y coordinate system. It's problematic when not moving in parallel to the wheels direction.
What kind of sensors do I need and how should they be used?

I'm using LabVIEW.

[Greg McKaskle]

Using two monitors on one computer, you may simply be able to run in developer mode and grow the dashboard window to the size you want spanning two monitors. This may result in having the video on the left and the tabbed area on the right which can show custom, basic, or variables.

If you wish to have video in another window, I'd probably build a simple subVI.
Move the vision display to it, set it to fill the window, and connect the indicator to the connector pane as an input.
Set the VI Properties of the subVI to Open when Called.
Then drop this new subVI into the vision loop and pass the image to the subVI instead of to the terminal of the original display.

As additional cleanup, you may want to modify the original dashboard code to get rid of image display references and simplify or delete the resize code that was assuming a screen split.

Greg McKaskle

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by GuyM142

And as for the mecanum,
I would like to know the position of the robot on a x, y coordinate system. It's problematic when not moving in parallel to the wheels direction.
What kind of sensors do I need and how should they be used?

Keeping track of robot coordinates is a problematic proposition in general. A mecanum drivebase does make the kinematic calculations a little more involved than a skid-steer one, but if you are good about changing speeds smoothly and not slipping your wheels, the calculations are actually more likely to match reality. Using an encoder on each wheel, you can compute how far and in which direction the robot is traveling, and how much it has rotated.

[mandrews281]

I was thinking something very similar. I would like to have two SmartDashboard windows. One for the driver and the other for the operator. With the idea of having our custom driver station with two screens. But, I haven't found the option to create a second SmartDashboard window yet.

While we could widen the display to span both screens and populate one side with driver info and the other side with operator info; but that would force force us to have a dual screen setup even while we are testing. Overlapping windows would be easier to manage during development.

Is this possible or am I just dreaming?