[FRC Blog] 2015 Control System and Kit of Parts Survey

[magnets]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Then use a spike relay off one of the relay ports. If you feel you need more than 4 spikes, some of the general purpose digital i/o can be set up to run relays (probably).

I was told at St. Louis that we would not be able to use the normal I/O for the relays. They did say that the setup they had there was not the final one, so the new one might be able to do that.

[adciv]

Originally Posted by magnets

My biggest dislike is the lack of relay ports. We usually don't use pneumatics besides for shifting, so we never have a compressor on board. If we use one spike for shifting drive (so we don't have to buy a $90 board that is way more complicated than it needs to be), then we only have three spikes left for motors. We usually use at least that many.

Is there a any particular reason you're using spikes instead of Victors/Talons for the motors? The only time I think we've used a spike over a motor controller was when we temporarily maxed out our PWMs outputs. Given that the new RIO allows for 20 PWMs, I don't see this being an issue.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by adciv

Is there a any particular reason you're using spikes instead of Victors/Talons for the motors? The only time I think we've used a spike over a motor controller was when we temporarily maxed out our PWMs outputs. Given that the new RIO allows for 20 PWMs, I don't see this being an issue.

Yes. The spike costs half as much as the victor.

[Jefferson]

Originally Posted by magnets

I charge my pneumatics with a relay that is many years old. I buy a single $34.95 relay for shifting. I would not like to purchase $180 worth of pneumatics boards, instead, I would like to purchase 1 new spike relay for use on the competition robot, and use an older relay for our practice robot. That is spending 5 times as much money to accomplish the same task. In my personal opinion, providing CAN functionality to the pneumatics board is too complicated.

Ah. I see what you are saying.

I'd say you are in the minority in using pneumatics, not wanting to use a PCM, and using more than 2 relays. NI / CTRE built the system for the majority of users and yours seems like a pretty signicant edge case.

CAN on the PCM is 2 wires using reliable connectors and the programmer is blind to its application. Not really complicated.

[FrankJ]

Without reading the 2015 rules, you will not know if you can run the compressor with a spike or if you will have to use the compressor port.

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

<snip>
For anyone who wants to get involved and see the stuff 'before December', by all means sign up for the Beta testing and be part of the solution. The more experienced teams who test, the better. Keep in mind though that part of being a Beta team means holding a seminar for other teams, so none of the information comes as a shock to anyone.

I dug around a bit trying to find the Beta Signup Page. No Joy. Can someone please point me to it?

Thanks,
Joe J.

[Joel Glidden]

Beta Sign Up

[JamesTerm]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

For anyone who wants to get involved and see the stuff 'before December', by all means sign up for the Beta testing and be part of the solution. The more experienced teams who test, the better. Keep in mind though that part of being a Beta team means holding a seminar for other teams, so none of the information comes as a shock to anyone.

I just wanted to highlight the words "get involved" as in actually investing time in testing and having more activity in the beta forums etc. We'll need to step it up more than ever... For example, I'm still somewhat frustrated about the SmartDashboard lockup bug that was never found during beta testing... grant it... it was hard to reproduce, but that's where the beta program comes in... testing over and over again.. to increase chances of finding the intermittent bugs.

[dellagd]

This in going to be a lot of fun

Can't wait to see what the USB radio will entail and also those USB camera's (Hint Hint: Kinect on robot)

[DaveFrederick]

Can anyone provide information on the USB Radio? What manufacture or model number? I am not familiar with this interface.

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by DaveFrederick

Can anyone provide information on the USB Radio? What manufacture or model number? I am not familiar with this interface.

The USB radios didn't work as well as hoped. Beta test teams are using the old D-Links.

[Greg McKaskle]

It was an Asus N53. It worked well in isolation and with Windows drivers. The "fun" began when multiple of them were operating at the same time to the same channel with the linux drivers. They stepped all over one another and applying various patches didn't make them that much better.

With driver fixes, it is really nice because it can be mounted wherever you want by using an extension cable and it is about the size of the new motor controllers.

Greg McKaskle