Help with FRC Java

[gixxy]

We are a new team and hoping to use Java as the programming language for this years build season, however being a rookie team we do not yet have a CRIO to test with. Is there any kind of an emulator for at least Windows (but Linux would be nice too).

Also, Our Teacher Sponsor was curious as to if you could set up a visual dashboard for the Robot in Java with the FRC API. I didn't see anything in the documentation for JFrame or anything else as it seems to be based on Java ME. Could Anyone point me in the direction of either how to do this, or a way to manually enable GUIs.

Also are there any resources for quickly learning the basic syntax and such for Java, we have two people on the team who know some BASICS, but all the others know next to nothing about anything related to programming, much less OOP.


All your help is appreciated.

[austin1743]

From what i currently understand there isn't a emulator/ visual dashboard for the Robot in Java but that would be nice.

I was recommended the Bluej book a few weeks back and I am currently teaching myself how to program in java. I have tried many things so far and found that Bluej offers one of the nicest and best explanations of the java language. It utilizes a book and lessons that are pretty easy to understand. Bluej is just an IDE, most teams use the Netbeans IDE for the competition.

here's the link, http://www.bluej.org/

i would suggest having them sit down and do it at a pace they can learn at.

if you have any questions feel free to ask

[byteit101]

For dashboards, I recommend ZomB. Install it, run it, and at the bottom, go to sources, and select one, remove it, select the other, and change it to Smart. You can drag controls on, give them names, and save it. Run (F5) runs it now, Deploy (F6) builds it to run when the driver station is launched. Also, oin the top left corner of the canvas, if the robot is running, you can click the search button, and it will show you all the controls you can add. If you need more help, or have issues installing/running ZomB, please let me know (I can only fix them if I know what to fix!)

On the robot side, use SmartDashboard class. I dont' remember the call of the top of my head, but its something like SmartDashbaords.Init(); SmartDashbaord.add("name", value);
Search around for the specific syntax

http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/sfmain/....zombdashboard

[gixxy]

Yeah all our computers are running Netbeans as well. I will look into the book!


Ok, so with ZomB I can set it up so that I can have a visual screen with reading from various sensors, or the current position of a motor, ect for the drive team to be able to look at?


Thanks for the help both of you!

[byteit101]

Yes, look at http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/go/page1035 for some screenshots.
you can send whatever you want, and represent it how you want. One of the better ones I remember testing is the transform options. I had a scale (image control), and a tick mark (also image control). The tick was transformed by the values sent from the robot, making a cool slider value sort of thing. The ZomB interface looks deceptively simple sometimes, but has immense power if you know what you are doing... (Look at the video on the Firstforge landing page)
Our team's dashboard last year had little, but was very useful for lining up (we put an image overlay on the camera): http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...16&postcount=8

[Jared Russell]

Smart Dashboard is being updated for 2012 and will include more bi-directional interaction (such as setting properties and selecting autonomous modes from the Driver Station). We have experimented with both Smart Dashboard and zomB, and really liked both.

[gixxy]

Awesome, only wish I had a Windows computer to test with right now, but I should be able to test it soon on a team computer. This is much appreciated!

[gixxy]

Could the SmartDashboard be run on Linux?

I can't seem to find the project page on it.....

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by gixxy

Could the SmartDashboard be run on Linux?

I can't seem to find the project page on it.....

SmartDashboard is written completely in Java, so I expect that it would run in Linux (as a remote Dashboard; obviously Linux cannot run the Driver Station).

This is the project page for SmartDashboard (you may need a FIRSTForge account to view): http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/smartdashboard

[gixxy]

I know you need windows to run the drive station, but my personal laptop that I use for development is Linux, and if I could use it to develop the Dashboard it would be a major help.

Yeah if its in Java, then it should work just fine! Thanks!

[Sunstroke]

A word of warning.

The SmartDashboard is tremendously different than its old version so as to be more powerful and interconnected with the new java api's on the robot.

Neither the new java or the new SmartDashboard are publicly available, the publicly available SmartDashboard is an older version that works with the currently available java stuffs.

You'll have to wait a bit before things become available.

[byteit101]

Originally Posted by gixxy

I know you need windows to run the drive station, but my personal laptop that I use for development is Linux, and if I could use it to develop the Dashboard it would be a major help.

Yeah if its in Java, then it should work just fine! Thanks!

Well, you do need the Driver Station (Or ZomB ) to enable the robot, so it makes little difference...

[gixxy]

Originally Posted by Sunstroke

A word of warning.

The SmartDashboard is tremendously different than its old version so as to be more powerful and interconnected with the new java api's on the robot.

Neither the new java or the new SmartDashboard are publicly available, the publicly available SmartDashboard is an older version that works with the currently available java stuffs.

You'll have to wait a bit before things become available.

I saw that the new SmartDashboard wasn't out, but wasn't aware that the new Java API wasn't. Thanks for the Info!