Free programming help

[Cuog]

OK now that i have completed about 50% of the coding for my team and will likely be done with our boring autonomous codes by the end fo the week.

I will now try to aid other teams especially those with rookie programmers to get their code up and going, for help you can PM me or AIM me or Email me:

Aim: way2fst79ta
email: fst79ta AT gmail DOT com

please feel free to ask for any help I need something to do!

Good Luck,
Cuog

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Cuog

OK now that i have completed about 50% of the coding for my team and will likely be done with our boring autonomous codes by the end fo the week.

I will now try to aid other teams especially those with rookie programmers to get their code up and going, for help you can PM me or AIM me or Email me:

Aim: way2fst79ta
email: fst79ta AT gmail DOT com

please feel free to ask for any help I need something to do!

Good Luck,
Cuog

Heh. Done eh?

A real programmer is never done. There is always something that can be improved. How about improving those "boring" autonomous modes?

[devicenull]

Start playing with the camera if you are done.. even if your team can't use it this year, it's not something thats going to go away any time soon. It doesn't need much to get working..

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Heh. Done eh?

A real programmer is never done. There is always something that can be improved. How about improving those "boring" autonomous modes?

Don't you hate it when it says "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Tom Bottiglieri again."

[roboticsguy1988]

Also i would like to note these sites are all about helping FIRST programmers:

I think all of these sites sorta need a boost... discuss stuff if you can, download code and mess with it, or upload new code on the ones you can.

http://www.frcsoft.com/

http://kevin.org/frc/

http://frcoder.sourceforge.net/

P.S. I know i missed some sites.... sorry.

[Oumonkey]

Cool, Then theres a small chance I may be emailing you. But before I destroy my own robot with some bad code...
Do you have any tips for Dead reckoning autonomous mode? I don't think I know enough to use a potentiometer (or however its spelled).
Also, I have heard that some people making a dongle isn't as easy as it looks and can mess up your rc controller thingy, Should we just buy one or try to make the dongle? Right now I am going to set up a button press on the controller to start auto but I don't think that would be as good as it sounds.

[dalch17]

i am on a rookie team and am the best choice for programmer only i have no experience and neither does anyone else on my team. i don't even know where to start

[JamesBrown]

I am just curious what do you plan on doing in auto? Most teams are no where near having a robot that can be completely programmed nor will they be until the end of week 6. If some how you actually finished then I would recommend you try to do something else in auto. If you saw the game last year auto was very boring, almost nothing happened. If you really do have that much time left then work on integrating new sensors to do different things, I cannot imagine you are doing much more than drive some place by counting loops. In the next few weeks try to give your code more structure and make your auton a little better. In this game auton can make or break a team.

If you want a good example of code look at the code Mike posted in the white papers from last year. His code uses pots and the camera, is structured very logically, is commented well and was extremely functional. Until your code looks like this you are far from done.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

If you want a good example of code look at the code Mike posted in the white papers from last year. His code uses pots and the camera, is structured very logically, is commented well and was extremely functional. Until your code looks like this you are far from done.

Thank you
My code is located here: Team 237 Triple Play Code

I'm also willing to help people, as long as they are willing to use decent spelling/grammar and learn. I don't want to talk to people that go "Hai, culd u make mi autonomus wurK? thxxxxx."

You can IM me at MikeWasHere05

[devicenull]

Originally Posted by Oumonkey

Cool, Then theres a small chance I may be emailing you. But before I destroy my own robot with some bad code...
Do you have any tips for Dead reckoning autonomous mode? I don't think I know enough to use a potentiometer (or however its spelled).
Also, I have heard that some people making a dongle isn't as easy as it looks and can mess up your rc controller thingy, Should we just buy one or try to make the dongle? Right now I am going to set up a button press on the controller to start auto but I don't think that would be as good as it sounds.

Not that I advise doing this, but we've enabled the extra channels with a paper clip before. That would be a very bad idea for auton code though. If you have someone on your team who can solder decently, it should not be a problem to make one. Check it a couple times, then get someone else to check it if you are that worried.

[Cuog]

Ok to those who claim i am not done with my code i admit that is an exaduration, i still have a lot of testing and debugging that i need our mechanical to finish the design so until then i am done, also i have done a number of playing with kevin watson's code for the camera and i have even modified his tracking algorith so that i can tell it to search certain zones where the light should be.

Now for those asking help:
OUMONKEY: for dead reckoning i would generally recomend against it, but if you want you can do it for a basic autonomous(2 of my three autonomous start out with it then they calculate where they are and travel to where it needs to go based on the camera input)

basically in dead reckoning you depend on the way your robot has behaved to tell where it should be on the feild, you can calculate this by taking what PWM value was sent for how long and use the robots speed to find where it is, accelerometers and gryos can be used to tell how the robots possition is changed, a vertically mounted gyro can tell you how much the robot has turned to make sure you know where you are pointed.

when you have actual code email it to me and i will help you get it working if you want

DALCH17:
I would recomend that you start by looking at some C tutorials found hiding on USFIRST.org also download the default code from ifirobotics.com or download the camera code from kevin.org/frc and use that if you still have questions once you have started then just let me know

[Packmon's_girl]

Yes, I am on a rookie team, and given the fact that our school will not let us download the c compiler and the MPlab program to our computers, and my mentor wants me to find out if we put such gear drive to such pmw and have it work basically, THIS WEEK, how am I supposed to do it, and also, I have looked at the tutorial from the US first website,and I am still confused about c programming and would like some help understanding it.
Please can anyone help, I would be deeply indebted to you if you would.
Thank you.

PS sorry for any typos,or mispellings.

[Cuog]

To be able to help you to get pointed in the right direction it will help me alot to know how much you already know about programming in general, if this is the first time you have done any large scale programming then i can understand the daunting task, this is the second largest programing project that i have ever had, although i have only been programming for 2 years,

now since you have read the .ppt files on USFIRST i would recomend that when you are at home you take the C-BOT CD and install the programs on your home computer, i would also recomend trying to convince your school division to allow you to install it on one of the computers, DO NOT INSTALL IT WITHOUT PERMISSION.

If your team doesnt want to do any custom programing yet then if you use the default code here is how each PWM is powered(i am doing this from memory so someone please correct me if i state something wrong):
pwm01 joystick 1 Y axis(forward back)
pwm02 joystick 2 Y axis
pwm03 joystick 3 Y axis
pwm04 joystick 4 Y axis
pwm05 joystick 1 X axis
pwm06 joystick 2 X axis
pwm07 joystick 3 X axis
pwm08 joystick 4 X axis
pwm09 sorry dont remember from here on out
pwm10
pwm11
...

using these PWM values you can hook up your victor 884 to the RC at these pinouts as per the manuals instructions(found at ifirobotics.com) and you can set up pretty much everything for a funtioning robot.

there are also the spike relays that can be hooked up and they are set to relay1_fwd
relay1_rev
relay2_fwd...(i dint remember what joysticks these go to but a quick search through user_routines.c in the 2006 default code will tell you)

Here you go, good luck if this doesnt help just email me or post a clarification so i can try again

[BorisTheBlade]

Originally Posted by Cuog

pwm01 joystick 1 Y axis(forward back)
pwm02 joystick 2 Y axis
pwm03 joystick 3 Y axis
pwm04 joystick 4 Y axis
pwm05 joystick 1 X axis
pwm06 joystick 2 X axis
pwm07 joystick 3 X axis
pwm08 joystick 4 X axis
pwm09 sorry dont remember from here on out
pwm10
pwm11

thats one way to do it or if you actualy want to do some programming just go out and buy a really cheapo laptop just for programming. All you really need is an old laptop that at least runs windows 98

[Cuog]

^^^^entirely true my programming rig is a pentium 2 win 98 machine but it works, that reference though was because i am unsure of where she is in the whole programming voyage