A request for change to next years Innovation FIRST control board/system.

[Elgin Clock]

This year the biggest problem we had with the OI and interface, was the fact that most of the computers we use to upload code to the Robot did not have a serial port for use with the program cable.

I would like to see Innovation FIRST upgrade to at least a USB 1 connection next year.

Tethering is no problem, but programming and downloading was a pain. We had to program on one of the teams laptops, and then transfer it to my laptop through a floppy disk from my laptop with the serial port.

It was nice, cause I felt useful, but I wish we did not have to go through this frustration.

I know that the easy solution is a USB-Serial port converter, but none of the ones we tried would ever work with the new computers.

This is actaully the reason I purchased the laptop I did earlier this year - a Dell Inspiron 8100 with an actual swappable floppy drive and ports that just do not come on today's newer laptops.

If the new standard ports on computers and laptops are switching over to USB, shouldn't we follow suit with our hardware?

EDIT: One thing I forgot to ask, was, is this even possible?? With the amount and kind of data we are transferring, is this possible to switch from a serial to a USB??