Can the robot read a text file?

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

The pocket pc side was done in Java. From there I don't know what they did. It could've generated scripting for something like Kevin Watson's that needed to be copied and pasted. Or, more ideally they probably had the SD card plug into something on the robot like thunderchickens has (or at least crosstheroad electronics).

I am not familiar with any flash memory reader for FRC robots. Can you provide a URL?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

I am not familiar with any flash memory reader for FRC robots. Can you provide a URL?

http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.c...cken%20AID.htm

I know it's not for sale by them yet.... but it is something that is possible, and I've heard of teams doing it before....

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.c...cken%20AID.htm

I know it's not for sale by them yet.... but it is something that is possible, and I've heard of teams doing it before....

Do you know what teams have done it? I know people who have implemented reading from SD cards on PICs before, but not on FIRST robots, and I would love to find out how their procedure works.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

Do you know what teams have done it? I know people who have implemented reading from SD cards on PICs before, but not on FIRST robots, and I would love to find out how their procedure works.

If I remember correctly, SD/MMC cards run on an SPI connection. The IFI RC is using SPI on the user processor for something else.

This could be fixed by using an auxiliary PIC (although I would prefer an AVR.. woo GCC!), connecting the card via SPI, and using a serial connection between the aux board and the IFI controller. Also, I suppose if you wanted to get really fancy, you could emulate SPI by bit banging through the available i/o.

[bear24rw]

The module i linked to above from spark fun has SPI or TTL interface

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by CyDrive

My theory is actually quite simple write directly to the EEPROM from my laptop with a custom program. Then use a custom scripting engine in the autonomous section. This will give me the 2 things i want. Ease of use and a fast way to create new autonomous modes.

Why not do everything on the RC? You could provide a terminal interface like:

1) Display command list (list number)
2) Set current command list (list number)
3) Delete command (command number)
4) Insert command (insertion point)
5) Modify command (command number)
6) ...

Commands could be something like:

1) Drive Arc (arc parameters)
2) Drive straight (distance)
3) Turn in place (radians)
4) Set arm position (3-d position)
5) Catch fire
6) Inflate flotation device
7) End command list
8) ...

The bells and whistles camera code might give you some ideas.

-Kevin

[JimGRobot]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

If I remember correctly, SD/MMC cards run on an SPI connection. The IFI RC is using SPI on the user processor for something else.

This could be fixed by using an auxiliary PIC (although I would prefer an AVR.. woo GCC!), connecting the card via SPI, and using a serial connection between the aux board and the IFI controller. Also, I suppose if you wanted to get really fancy, you could emulate SPI by bit banging through the available i/o.

I'm glad to see some interest in this topic, reading files from SD chips would be handy...

Last year I posted some information about using an SD module for holding autonomous scripting files. I used a module from DOSonChip, but I think it uses the same chip as the sparkfun model. I wrote some test code that runs on an SX28, but never tried it on an RC.

The code uses bit-banging on some port pins for SPI, and includes some simple file parsing examples. I intended to write some higher-level functions, but never got there.

All of the information is in multiple blog entries here.

Have fun,
Jim

[CyDrive]

I agree it is awesome to see people interested in this. I mean the use of these ideas can be very valuable.