Programming via Edubot

[Joshua May]

I work as the programmer for my team, but the computer on which I am able to do my work is at home. It would be nearly impossible to bring the robot to my house, so I was wondering if it was possible to download code onto the EDU RC from the computer and then somehow use the EDU RC to download the code to the robot.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by HHSJosh

I work as the programmer for my team, but the computer on which I am able to do my work is at home. It would be nearly impossible to bring the robot to my house, so I was wondering if it was possible to download code onto the EDU RC from the computer and then somehow use the EDU RC to download the code to the robot.

Not in any known way. Have a laptop?

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Texan

Not in any known way. Have a laptop?

A pen drive would work. Our team uses ours for everything. Programs, graphics, and everything else. You can get 30 mb cheap and a mp3 will double as one.

[Mark McLeod]

I's a long way to go between home and school if you need to make a single code change.

Your project will also easily fit on a standard floppy if you first delete the unnecessary automatically generated files produced by the compiler, linker, etc. (.o, .cod, .cof, .lst, .map)

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by ngreen

A pen drive would work. Our team uses ours for everything. Programs, graphics, and everything else. You can get 30 mb cheap and a mp3 will double as one.

That's what I use (but a beefier 128 MB. I carry all the docs, too.). (The Muvo is the only USB key that doubles as a mp3 player). But you still need a laptop. If your school has computers, see if you can use one of them (just put IFI_Loader on the key). If not, see if one of your sponsers will 'lend' you a computer.

[Joshua May]

Another team member has a laptop that I have used in the past, and we're thinking about getting a team laptop, nothing special but something that does the job. The computers at our school won't allow us to put software on them, but I'm going to try to get administrative access to those, that would be easier.

Also, for our robot next year, I plan to have a removable component which holds the electronics and the RC (similar to 830's this year) and I could just transport this back and forth, at least between the shopa nd the computer lab.

Thanks for the responses!

[Mark McLeod]

Yep, your only option right now is to disconnect the RC and take that home for downloading. Aside from the pain of disconnecting and pulling out the RC, you'd just need the 7.2v battery and at least a standard 9v battery to run the RC long enough to download your code changes.

Or a REALLY long cable!

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Yep, your only option right now is to disconnect the RC and take that home for downloading. Aside from the pain of disconnecting and pulling out the RC, you'd just need the 7.2v battery and at least a standard 9v battery to run the RC long enough to download your code changes.

Or a REALLY long cable!

You can't power the RC from the 7.2 volt without first attaching it to the main power supply. Don't know why. Don't think it's possible to program with it either, even if the RC is using the power from it.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Texan

You can't power the RC from the 7.2 volt without first attaching it to the main power supply. Don't know why. Don't think it's possible to program with it either, even if the RC is using the power from it.

Ah, but it is possible.
The RC will resort to the backup battery when the 12 volt supply fails.
Since it won't START using only the 7.2v, all you need to do is fool the RC into thinking a 12v source is there at startup. A fresh 9volt battery just touched to the 12v terminals will fool it into thinking a somewhat drained 12v battery is actually being used. That's how we normally started our RC in the pits to drop in program changes when we didn't want to power-up the whole robot, i.e., when the drivetrain was under repair at the same time.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Ah, but it is possible.
The RC will resort to the backup battery when the 12 volt supply fails.
Since it won't START using only the 7.2v, all you need to do is fool the RC into thinking a 12v source is there at startup. A fresh 9volt battery just touched to the 12v terminals will fool it into thinking a somewhat drained 12v battery is actually being used. That's how we normally started our RC in the pits to drop in program changes when we didn't want to power-up the whole robot, i.e., when the drivetrain was under repair at the same time.

Clever. Never thought of that. But can you actually program it using the 7.2v? I'm wondering because writing FROM tends to put a relatively heavy load on the power source.

[CyberWolf_22]

Yes you can download running only on the 7.2 volt battery because one time while working on autonomous mode I really wanted to download a program but our main batteries just died so we pushed the robot till the drill motor put out enough voltage to start the RC so I could download the program.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by CyberWolf_22

Yes you can download running only on the 7.2 volt battery because one time while working on autonomous mode I really wanted to download a program but our main batteries just died so we pushed the robot till the drill motor put out enough voltage to start the RC so I could download the program.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. That method is even more clever than the nine volt one.