paper: Driver Station Encoder Support using the TI LaunchPad

[KMBruggeman]

That is what I was thinking - and since I have a custom dashboard was attempting to just put the custom Labview code with indicators on the "custom" tab of the dashboard to output the buttons and the encoder count.

I figured since I could see the buttons lighting up at the bottom of the driver station and in my custom dashboard I should be able to read that input without actually running "main.vi" to either a live robot or a simulated robot (to help out my old and wheezing processor).

I'm not seeing the button outputs though and when I tried to tie into the data stream that is on the standard dashboard project I was not getting anything from the Launchpad (My process is 1 encoder then modify to get a 2nd and if I have any hair and patience left maybe a 3rd).

That being said I am looking to see if there's a way I can "see" what's happening along the process to troubleshoot. (Similar to my cheap way of putting "Alert('here');" when doing poor man's javascript troubleshooting to see where the process is breaking down.

I see three critical places I would like to check thus far.

1 - Can I tell what software is actually loaded on the Launchpad? (Validate the software install) Currently when I use the little debug button I am getting HW stops where I have a steady red LED and I have to restart the Launchpad via unplugging/plugging it in. When setting the OPTION2 and OPTION3 flag it does show with the appropriate # of buttons afterwards via a Labview Custom DB.

2 - Is the Launchpad actually calculating a value for "encoder_count" and what is it? (Can I see this by using a tool in CCS?)

3 - What is the Launchpad sending via "gamepadReportTX.buttons"?
(Could I see this on my laptop with another tool? I would guess that I could use the LabView Custom Dashboard for this)

I know that's a bit lengthy but hopefully clears things up.

Also if I wanted to use say P1.3 and P1.2 would I need to delete them from the "Indicators" section of "OPTION1" in hal.c and replace two of the dummy inputs after P1.4 in the buttons section? e.g.

#define NUM_BUTTONS 32
#define NUM_INDICATORS 9

{GPIO_PORT_P1, GPIO_PIN4},
{GPIO_PORT_P1, GPIO_PIN3},
{GPIO_PORT_P1, GPIO_PIN2},
... dummy inputs ...

Thanks again for explaining this. If it would be easier I can provide a phone #.

Kurt