ANNOUNCING: navX MXP Robotics Navigation Sensor

[rich2202]

Originally Posted by slibert

Kauai Labs will be attending World Championships in St. Louis April 27 - 30 this year.

Our backup NavX board decided to take siesta's whenever it wants to. I hope you are bringing some NavX boards to Champs (2 were available on your website). We would like to buy one from you in St. Louis.

The NavX on the Competition Robot in the Crate should be working, but we would feel better if we had a backup for the critical component.

[slibert]

Originally Posted by rich2202

Our backup NavX board decided to take siesta's whenever it wants to. I hope you are bringing some NavX boards to Champs (2 were available on your website). We would like to buy one from you in St. Louis.

The NavX on the Competition Robot in the Crate should be working, but we would feel better if we had a backup for the critical component.

Please check your email for details. We will bringing a few boards with us to St. Louis but supplies are very limited due to high demand.

[slibert]

KauaiLabs has just released navX-MXP and navX-Micro Firmware version 2.3.257, which increases the sensor update rate to a blazing fast 100Hz. While hundreds of teams worldwide are very successful with using the navX-MXP at lower frame rates, the new 100Hz framerate support enables even faster response for those teams needing to squeeze as much performance out of their robot as possible.

Please note that in order to use this higher framerate, you'll need to both update your device firmware and also update to the latest RoboRIO libraries in order to achieve the highest possible performance. Both are installed onto your development PC using the latest setup program, available on the navX-MXP software page; after installing the setup program in the downloaded .zip file, then follow the firmware upgrade instructions, then modify your robot application to specify the 100Hz update rate, recompile your robot application.

KauaiLabs will be at FIRST World Championships this week and would be happy to answer any questions on this new feature - please feel free to instant message me if you're interested in meeting with us this week at World Championships.

[rich2202]

If we update the NavX, will it still work with the old code?

Prior year robots use the NavX (we move the NavX from bot to bot), and it is not worth updating their code.

[slibert]

Originally Posted by rich2202

If we update the NavX, will it still work with the old code?

Prior year robots use the NavX (we move the NavX from bot to bot), and it is not worth updating their code.

Yes the navX-MXP firmware is backwards compatible - older robot applications should work exactly the same no mods needed.

It's also forwards compatible - if a robot application is modified to configure navX-MXP for 100Hz updates and is run with a navX-MXP with older firmware, it will run at 66Hz.

[Jonathan L.]

Our team is planning to add a motor and a servo to our robot for state championships (off season). We are already using 9 of the 10 PWM channels on the roboRIO for motors and servos so we need to use one or two of the PWM channels on the navX for a motor and/or servo.

To my understanding the "IO" channels on the navX can be used for PWM (motors or servos) or Digital Input/Output by simply opening the reference to the the desired MXP channel with the appropriate VI for the desired signal type (we are using LabVIEW).

The only thing we're not sure of, is which pin on the IO ports is ground, power, and signal.

Please let us know if we are off track on any of the above.

[slibert]

Originally Posted by Jonathan L.

Our team is planning to add a motor and a servo to our robot for state championships (off season). We are already using 9 of the 10 PWM channels on the roboRIO for motors and servos so we need to use one or two of the PWM channels on the navX for a motor and/or servo.

To my understanding the "IO" channels on the navX can be used for PWM (motors or servos) or Digital Input/Output by simply opening the reference to the the desired MXP channel with the appropriate VI for the desired signal type (we are using LabVIEW).

The only thing we're not sure of, is which pin on the IO ports is ground, power, and signal.

Please let us know if we are off track on any of the above.

You are on the right track. The details are on the NavX-MXP Expansion io page.

Examples, including LabView are on the Io Expansion examples page.

If more info is needed, you can email support@email.com

[rleg60]

Our team used the NavX MXP sensor this last year and it worked great! We were limited by our programming experience, rather than by sensor drift/inaccuracy. It seems like a very capable product.