How to get started?

[ctccromer]

This is my first year on my school's robotics team, but our team is fairly small (10-15 total with half of us being complete newbies in most related fields). This year we have an awesome programmer, but next year I'm taking his place and this year I'll be helping with the Kinect pre-game control system, but that's about it.

In all, I'm just really intimidated.. I know nothing about wiring or building materials or anything. I know how to SET UP codes perfectly fine (spent years with StarCraft 2's mapmaker crafting RPG's and what not), but I just downloaded LabVIEW yesterday and only have a very very basic understanding of (part of) the C++ language. So with this year's game being what it is, is there anything specific that I could work on that would help me learn the languages/programs I'll need to master by next year? What is the best way I can learn as quick as possible? I'm devoted to the team and don't mind going home and programming for hours on end (after all, I enjoy the heck out of it and plan on majoring in Computer Science), I'm just extremely intimidated and have no idea where to start.

[notmattlythgoe]

Take a look at the getting started papers for each of the languages.

FIRST of all, welcome to FIRST and CD. Second, There's no need to be worried. Everyone here was a newbie at one point, and now we have people who are engineering geniuses! You learn a lot from FIRST. Make sure to learn as much as you can from your mentors, your team, and overall, have fun doing it. Not to mention you have the entire Chief Delphi community to back you up! Seriously, if you have a problem or question about anything, everyone on here would be more than happy to help you.

Good luck, and have fun. Trust me, everything is well worth it.

[Chris Hibner]

I would suggest the following:

1. Do you want to continue using the same language as the current programmer? If the answer is yes, then be sure the current programmer allows you to do some parts of the code. They don't have to be super difficult in your first year, you should have some responsibilities. There's nothing like being required to do something - it really helps force you to learn.

2. Do you want to use a different language than is currently used? If this is the case, then I would try and do a mirror version of your competition robot code in the new language. This way, you learn the language while having working robot code to build on for next year.

[MagiChau]

I would look at the documentation available for pre-existing robotics library code such as the WPI Library so you know what exists already. Also, gain some familarity with the sensors and what exists (quadrature encoders, potentiometer, limit switches etc.) If you have an idea on how to accomplish a task but don't know what tools you have then try to look it up. Other teams also made their source code open-source if you wish to learn from it.

[vhcook]

In addition to all of the above, I'll recommend this:

If you are going to use Labview, I strongly recommend watching the tutorial videos on http://www.frcmastery.com. They are excellent, and really helped me when I was learning Labview.

Spend some time looking over the default code.

If you're also doing any electrical, make sure you completely understand the electrical rules and spend some time with the robot data connectivity diagram. If you aren't it's still a good idea, since you're going to need to understand what things plug in where to code for it.

Assuming the presence of a wired up and powered control system, a speed controller, and a motor, try some simple testing. A good beginner problem is to write some simple code to spin a motor when a joystick button is pushed, and stop when it is released. Once you can do that and test it, you have learned how to tell the robot about a new device, read joystick status, do very simple logic, and set a motor speed. Have your mentor and/or lead check your work before you test it.

[pianogrrl71]

Welcome to FIRST! I know the feeling -- my team was a rookie team last year. And we actually created a website specifically for this.

http://rookiefirsts.tumblr.com/

Check it out -- it has links to most of the starting documents as well as tutorials for the sections of a typical FIRST team. If you run into problems, post on the Rookie FIRSTs website or on Chief Delphi and there will be tons of teams willing to help you!

[ctccromer]

Thanks for the support everyone! I know for sure my teacher/mentor will want me to use LabVIEW for the robot next year, and that's fine by me since it looks a lot easier to use than a window of text such as C++, Java, etc. I'll be sure to check out all those links! And I'll use the extra motors, wheels, and whatever else we have to start practicing with it. The videos and tutorials, plus this forum, should be enough for me to get a solid foundation soon

As for C++ and other codes, I don't know if we'll need it at all next year, but as far as I know, the Kinect SDK only works with C++ and C# (and having never actually seen C#, I plan on going with the former, however similar they may be). Does anyone know of any good online tutorials I could use for issuing orders to the robot via positions? Not necessarily gestures or audio commands, but simply positions. After I get that far, then we'll get fancy hehe

Thanks again! This is tons of help!

EDIT: I opened the Getting Started documents in LabVIEW (thanks to the first suggestion here) and theres 5 entire chapters to get familiar with the program, AS WELL AS all the tutorial links here. So if anyone else happens to stumble upon this thread later in the same situation as me, definitely check those out! I just completes the first chapter in about an hour and already am a lot more confident with the program ^^