RoboRio

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by wireties

The NI guys emphasized over and over again it was REALLY LINUX (their emphasis). I don't know why on earth you would do such a thing but Ruby should be possible.

Maybe you can run the whole C++ toolchain on it? That would be convenient.

[tech2077]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

Maybe you can run the whole C++ toolchain on it? That would be convenient.

You could run the whole enviroment on it, but from having worked with embedded linux environments, you'll have to have an amazing amount of patience. Maybe for something quite it may be convenient, but by the time you finish compiling the project on the roboRIO, you probably could have booted your computer, compiled the code, uploaded, and restarted your code in the same time.

[crake]

Originally Posted by wireties

The NI guys emphasized over and over again it was REALLY LINUX (their emphasis).

Sure you didn't hear "REAL TIME LINUX"?

[wireties]

Originally Posted by crake

Sure you didn't hear "REAL TIME LINUX"?

Nope, that is what the presenter repeated over and over again. If you look at the literature on the NI web site it says "embedded Linux with real-time extensions". Recent changes to the Linux kernel to make it scale better (in SMP environments) and to handle streaming I/O better (play video and audio) put Linux (straight from kernel.org) firmly in the soft real-time category. I'm not sure if the distro on the RoboRio will include an alternate scheduler or just have all the real-time stuff turned on and/or use embedded versions of user space libraries and utilities. It will be interesting to see what we get.

[wireties]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

Maybe you can run the whole C++ toolchain on it? That would be convenient.

You probably could but I don't think you would want to. Cross-compiling on a workstation will be muuuuch faster.

[lemiant]

Are there any recordings of some of these conferences? I'd love to learn more about the roboRIO.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Originally Posted by lemiant

Are there any recordings of some of these conferences? I'd love to learn more about the roboRIO.

Yeah, I'd like to see some of them too. Them sounded really interesting and I wish I could have been at the championship to see them.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by suhaskodali

On the beta testing, is there a frc blog post this year similar to this one: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...c/blog-8-16-12 ? So that we know the due date for application, and can confirm the validity of the survey, https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLTYSGS?

I suspect a blog post or email blast will be coming before too long. I've attached a copy of the flier that was handed out.

[Joey1939]

My favorite features

1. Linux: Full linux shell and features are just an ssh away
2. Java 8: No explanation needed
3. Units and Measures: In java pots will directly return an angle and encoders a distance
4. Eclipse: Already my standard IDE gains FRC
5. 5 second launch: The java program is saved on the roboRio as a jar. The jar is uploaded and launched without reboot in under 5 seconds.
6. PCM: Makes compressor control much easier

(Quick Note: Because of the linux shell you can run whatever java version you want)

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by wireties

You probably could but I don't think you would want to. Cross-compiling on a workstation will be muuuuch faster.

I'd be interested to know how much slower it is. Maybe 10x? I don't have a good sense of how many cycles on an ARM Cortex A9 is equivalent to a cycle on a recent x86. Anybody seen a good comparison?

[wireties]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

I'd be interested to know how much slower it is. Maybe 10x? I don't have a good sense of how many cycles on an ARM Cortex A9 is equivalent to a cycle on a recent x86. Anybody seen a good comparison?

There is more to it than the throughput of the processor. On the robot there will be less memory (and paged memory may be disabled), less cache and less non-volatile storage though I reckon one could attach a USB drive. I think the core of the i7 is roughly 25X faster (it is hard to make a apples-to-apples comparison) but the effective throughput of the i7 is much higher.

[Nemo]

Does the new power board supply 12 V or 24 V power to the RoboRio? I'm just wondering if the minimum voltage went up or down as compared to FRC-cRIO-II, because the spec sheet Joe uploaded lists 6.8V as the minimum voltage.

The NI page has a spec sheet that says there's a staged brownout from 4.5V-6.8V. Is that new? My understanding is that the current PDB feeds 24V to the cRio, so 4.5V of battery voltage (plus a bit for resistance losses) can meet the 9-30 V power requirement. If that requirement goes up to 6.8 V or down to 3.4 V, that has implications for robot design.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Does the new power board supply 12 V or 24 V power to the RoboRio? I'm just wondering if the minimum voltage went up or down as compared to FRC-cRIO-II, because the spec sheet Joe uploaded lists 6.8V as the minimum voltage.

The NI page has a spec sheet that says there's a staged brownout from 4.5V-6.8V. Is that new? My understanding is that the current PDB feeds 24V to the cRio, so 4.5V of battery voltage (plus a bit for resistance losses) can meet the 9-30 V power requirement. If that requirement goes up to 6.8 V or down to 3.4 V, that has implications for robot design.

It's connected directly to the PD board battery supply.

I can't find the post but I read that they made it to allow for teams to mess up and hook it up to 24 volts without destroying it.

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

It's connected directly to the PD board battery supply.

I can't find the post but I read that they made it to allow for teams to mess up and hook it up to 24 volts without destroying it.

Thanks for the link. It will be interesting to see how far teams are able to push their overpowered drive trains with the new system. Fortunately, having CAN on the power board and in Talons will make it easier to figure out where the limits are.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Thanks for the link. It will be interesting to see how far teams are able to push their overpowered drive trains with the new system. Fortunately, having CAN on the power board and in Talons will make it easier to figure out where the limits are.

The PD board will have real-time monitoring capability on the different channels. That means it should be trivial to monitor the current draw of your motor systems and dynamically manage the system to send the power where you want it for the maximum amount of time.

I can already see writing a power management VI where I can prioritize and limit the motor setoutput based on current draw.