Competition Super Dongle

[TonzOFun]

Does anyone know where I can find the pinout for the competition control? My team is attempting to make a super dongle, that basically does everything competition control does (radio, power, color, disable/enable, autonomous, etc). Thanks in advance.

[Kyle Fenton]

Unless you are an employee of Innovation FIRST, there is no diagram of the complete OI pin out. Innovation FIRST wants to keep that secret for a couple of reasons. Besides the obvious pins (5 & 6 etc), there have been some people by accident figured out the pins. For example Pin 1 is the pin that carries the power. But no one that I know has found out how to enable all 40 channels. I did find out how to disable the radio, but I forgot the pins you had to short.

You can experiment but remember that if you damage your OI intentionally then the warrantee won't cover it.

[Tristan Lall]

IFI doesn't usually release the full pinout or the communication protocol, but you might still ask them; they might be feeling generous.

Here's the basic pinout, for disable, auton. and additional channels: http://www.ifirobotics.com/docs/comp...guide-reva.pdf

[Nate Smith]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

IFI doesn't usually release the full pinout or the communication protocol, but you might still ask them; they might be feeling generous.

Here's the basic pinout, for disable, auton. and additional channels: http://www.ifirobotics.com/docs/comp...guide-reva.pdf

And actually, there's no set "pinout" for the port. The bulk of the communication(radio channel, color, feedback to field control equipment, etc) is managed through a two-way communication between the processor in the OI and a processor in the arena controller. The link mentioned above is pretty much all you can get without figuring out the communication protocol between the OI and AC. I believe the communication is also encrypted. And I wouldn't count on it being released any time soon, as that communication protocol is what ensures no interference or other problems caused by a rogue team at an event.

[russell]

Lol a "rogue team". I would think a more practical approach would be for IFI to just go ahead and give it to us (of course under the conditions that if you break anything you are responsible) and just bank on the fact that there wont be any "rogue teams". I really cant see blowing thousands of dollars and man hours in a robotics team, then going and doing something that would get you kicked out, and hopefully permanently banned from FIRST. If some team did do that then just kickem out, and get on with the competition. And dont give me something about their robot going crazy and hurting someone, the operators are behind windows that would stop a bullet, and everyone else is far enough away that they can get out of the way in plenty of time. Its not that there is absolutely no danger involved, its just that the chances of someone getting hurt (first you need a "rogue team" which is unlikely enough, then you need them to put a lot of time and energy into building a killer robot, then they need to have it actually work. If they can build this awesome killer robot why dont they just build a good robot and win the competition?) are thousands of times less than those of the human player getting hurt in last years competition.

It would be very helpful to a lot of teams, and more people would probably end of frying their OI so it would also make for increased profits too. In the end everyone is happy, except maybe the lawyers.

[mechanicalbrain]

Has anyone used a Y connector and used something like.... HyperTerminal (I think that would work) to monitor the signals between the OI and the radio transceiver? I'm just curious what it would look like.

[Mike Schroeder]

Originally Posted by russell

Lol a "rogue team". I would think a more practical approach would be for IFI to just go ahead and give it to us (of course under the conditions that if you break anything you are responsible) and just bank on the fact that there wont be any "rogue teams". I really cant see blowing thousands of dollars and man hours in a robotics team, then going and doing something that would get you kicked out, and hopefully permanently banned from FIRST. If some team did do that then just kickem out, and get on with the competition. And dont give me something about their robot going crazy and hurting someone, the operators are behind windows that would stop a bullet, and everyone else is far enough away that they can get out of the way in plenty of time. Its not that there is absolutely no danger involved, its just that the chances of someone getting hurt (first you need a "rogue team" which is unlikely enough, then you need them to put a lot of time and energy into building a killer robot, then they need to have it actually work. If they can build this awesome killer robot why dont they just build a good robot and win the competition?) are thousands of times less than those of the human player getting hurt in last years competition.

It would be very helpful to a lot of teams, and more people would probably end of frying their OI so it would also make for increased profits too. In the end everyone is happy, except maybe the lawyers.

Orrrrrrrrr. Lets not

why would you want to ban a team permanently from FIRST, why, would punish a group of people for somthing that one person potentinaly did, and why on top of that, would you take FIRST away from people who could join that team in the future, kinda takes away the whole reason for FIRST.....


so in my opinion, (the half a nano-cent its worth) i really would plug my favorite saying, sure we can have fun, but *glances down at the scar from the radial arm saw on my arm* lets try and play it safer than sorrier

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by russell

Lol a "rogue team". I would think a more practical approach would be for IFI to just go ahead and give it to us (of course under the conditions that if you break anything you are responsible) and just bank on the fact that there wont be any "rogue teams". I really cant see blowing thousands of dollars and man hours in a robotics team, then going and doing something that would get you kicked out, and hopefully permanently banned from FIRST. If some team did do that then just kickem out, and get on with the competition. And dont give me something about their robot going crazy and hurting someone, the operators are behind windows that would stop a bullet, and everyone else is far enough away that they can get out of the way in plenty of time. Its not that there is absolutely no danger involved, its just that the chances of someone getting hurt (first you need a "rogue team" which is unlikely enough, then you need them to put a lot of time and energy into building a killer robot, then they need to have it actually work. If they can build this awesome killer robot why dont they just build a good robot and win the competition?) are thousands of times less than those of the human player getting hurt in last years competition.

It would be very helpful to a lot of teams, and more people would probably end of frying their OI so it would also make for increased profits too. In the end everyone is happy, except maybe the lawyers.

You forget: IFI sells gear to many different groups, including some whose members might not have the highest standards of gracious professionalism all the time.

Besides, the dongle pinout's enough for me. Disable, autonomous. What more do you need?

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Billfred

What more do you need?

Full auxiliary channel access

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Full auxiliary channel access

And you would need this why?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

And you would need this why?

Well, my theory is that Dave's cooked up a game so complex that it required more than the RC could handle. Since it's kinda late in the game to develop a new one, we're getting TWO of them this year. And each requires its own modem and such.

[Andy A.]

I would like to see a super dongle, that is finished out in a nice breakout box with clearly laid out and labeled switches that allow for autonomous, disable, extra channels and, heres the biggie, power.

Right now, if you want to use the robot away from an outlet, you need to use a bunch of 9 volt batteries and a radio shack barrel connector. It works, but it seems like a really ugly and inefficient solution. And you use lots of 9v batteries and those buggers are expensive!

If someone could put together a project box that had all that, and enough battery power to run the OI and radio for say 15-20 minutes, I would would be very happy. I'm not to worried about getting all the channels, or knowing exactly what the OI is trying to say the the AC, but being able to conveniently power and disable the OI would be worlds better then the current mess of a dongle we use (ACK! which switch is disable? Crap! that was auto! ACK!).

While I was thinking about my ideal dongle switch, I thought that while training new drivers, it would be fun and maybe even useful to flip a switch and simulate a faliure on the bot. Perhaps knock out one side of a drive train, or simulate a breaker tripping. I see a lot of drivers who panic and don't understand why the bot 'won't go'. If they had some experenice, they might understand that a breaker has over heated, and needs to cool.

I guess thats more of a software deal, but any thoughts on that?

-Andy A.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Andy A.

While I was thinking about my ideal dongle switch, I thought that while training new drivers, it would be fun and maybe even useful to flip a switch and simulate a faliure on the bot. Perhaps knock out one side of a drive train, or simulate a breaker tripping. I see a lot of drivers who panic and don't understand why the bot 'won't go'. If they had some experenice, they might understand that a breaker has over heated, and needs to cool.

I guess thats more of a software deal, but any thoughts on that?

-Andy A.

I just looked at the OI reference guide. Building a box to intentionally screw up your robot should be no harder than building a box to control your robot for any other purpose. Assuming you use the buttons on Port 1, you have four digital inputs--eight if you disable them on Port 1. Additionally, you have four analog inputs to work with as well. If you wire up a set of resistors connected to switches, you should be able to have many potential issues. Then just add a smidge of code to set your PWM values to 127 (or whatever it'd be stuck as).

Just make sure to keep that box clear of the competition!

[GeorgeTheEng]

Originally Posted by Andy A.

Right now, if you want to use the robot away from an outlet, you need to use a bunch of 9 volt batteries and a radio shack barrel connector. It works, but it seems like a really ugly and inefficient solution. And you use lots of 9v batteries and those buggers are expensive!

Why not get a power inverter that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter and has a standard AC outlet. Replace lighter end with the anderson connector used for batteries. Then you can hook it up one of your extra batteries.

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by GeorgeTheEng

Why not get a power inverter that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter and has a standard AC outlet. Replace lighter end with the anderson connector used for batteries. Then you can hook it up one of your extra batteries.

Wouldn't it be cheaper just to regulate the battery and feed that to the OI directly?