Team 1718 Beta Seminar

[Pi Fighter]

Team 1718 will be hosting a seminar to discuss software and hardware changes for the 2012 season. Topics include:

• Changes between the 2011 and 2012 FRC LabVIEW
• Driver Station Changes
• Kinect Functionality
• Imaging Utility changes
• cRIO-II
• David Dual Relay Module
• 2012 Black Jaguar

This seminar will be on December 11th, 2011, from 10:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. at the Ford Motor Company Romeo Engine Plant (701 East 32 Mile Road, Romeo, MI, 48065). Parking is available in front of the lobby (the glass building with flag poles in front), although it is limited. If the lobby parking is full, please park in the lot east of the lobby. Signs in the lobby will direct you to the auditorium.

Please RSVP at Trevor.Goolsby@gmail.com with the number of people attending.

[boris1020]

This sounds like a great idea. I'd love to come, but Michigan is a little out of range for me; is there any way you could tape the seminar and YouTube it? Or something of that variety. If you could, that would be great, and it could be a great resource for my team and others.

[Tom Line]

We will be releasing all our materials online. That includes powerpoint, and coding examples.

We'll see about recording it. We tried that the last 3 years and it doesn't translate very well (we ended up not posting it). You can't see the presentation screen clearly enough, you don't get to the hold the hardware in your hands, etc. There are ways to do it - screencasts and so on. However that would require a separate production to record, and we unfortunately don't have time right now. It also ends up being very large - it generally takes 2 hours to run through the changes. Lots of headache for minimal gains.

I went and checked to see if any Beta Test teams are local to you. Montana isn't exactly a hotbed of Beta testing. Yikes! Your nearest one is in Colorado

[Pi Fighter]

The Team 1718 Beta Seminar has been moved from the Ford Romeo Engine Plant to the Macomb Academy of Arts and Sciences (23211 Prospect, Armada, MI, 48005). Parking is available in the lot to the right of the school. The logo of the school (MA2S) hangs right above the main doors. The time of the presentation (December 11th, 2011, 10 A.M - 12 P.M.) will remain the same.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

[Tom Line]

We regret to inform you that we will be cancelling Team 1718's beta test seminar this year. AT the time of this posting (3 days before the seminar), we do not have any teams that have responded. We still plan on completing the powerpoint, and should have it posted here before the end of the week.

If there are any questions about the powerpoint once it is posted, please let us know and we'll do our best to answer them.

Good luck during build season!

[maxwellt]

will you have pictures of the new products as well as talking about the Labview software

[Tom Line]

You can already see pictures of the components over on the FIRST website Beta forum. Frankly, there isn't anything terribly significant this year except the Kinect. The 4 slot acts just like the 8 slot (except the camera setup is different, you have to go through the switch). The david relay is, at it's heart, two relays stuck together. It also won't be released this year. The jag has some tweaks, but I understand CAN is where the real changes lay and we haven't been testing CAN.

Labview has some nice new features, but again, nothing earth shattering (other than drastically improved deploy times).

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

The david relay is, at it's heart, two relays stuck together.

It's more like two Spike modules stuck together, but paradoxically less integrated. A single Spike already has two relays, with one LED that indicates combinations of state. The David has individual LEDs for each of its four relays.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It's more like two Spike modules stuck together, but paradoxically less integrated. A single Spike already has two relays, with one LED that indicates combinations of state. The David has individual LEDs for each of its four relays.

Of course, you're correct. I've never bothered differentiating the spikes from a normal relay, other than to explain that they are a relay that allows on/off/forward/back. I think that's something I'll explain more in depth to my students this year.

[Pi Fighter]

Here is the Team 1718 Beta Presentation. Feel free to ask any questions.

[dcarr]

Hi, we are having a Beta Test Seminar Right now at www.ustream.tv/channel/beta-test-conference (December 10, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM PST). Join us!