pynetworktables 2014.4 released

[Patrick Shainin]

Hi,
We're using pynetworktables to communicate results of vision processing python code from a pandaboard to a crio that IS NOT using robotpy. We had problems that caused our robot to become unresponsive to autonomous or teleop controls when a match began (but didn't have any problem during practice matches, or during non-field system testing.) Disconnecting the pandaboard eliminated the problem, but also our vision processing.

Since we don't have a field system to debug with, we're investigating alternative communication pathways to pynetworktables (like i2c, since we don't need to communicate much info). I wondered if virtuald had an idea whether the bugs fixed by this pynetworktables release might cause this kind of problem or not, as more weight to encouraging the team to update pynetworktables. (I think that involves re-building pynetworktables through sip on the pandaboard due to its architecture.) The team is hesitant to apply the fix with a view of not changing things unless we have to, mid-season.

Thanks for any quick thoughts.

[virtuald]

What language is your robot code running?

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by Patrick Shainin

Hi,
We're using pynetworktables to communicate results of vision processing python code from a pandaboard to a crio that IS NOT using robotpy. We had problems that caused our robot to become unresponsive to autonomous or teleop controls when a match began (but didn't have any problem during practice matches, or during non-field system testing.) Disconnecting the pandaboard eliminated the problem, but also our vision processing.

If you're using C++ on your robot, then see this thread. The unresponsiveness is a known bug in the C++ implementation of NetworkTables. A workaround is *always* make sure everything is off before the match (including Driver Station, beagle, and cRio), and if any of them turn off, turn all of them off.

I've been told that FRC will be releasing an official patch for this in the next week or two, but my unofficial patch is also available.