C or LabVIEW: CompactRIO

[lingomaniac88]

Hmm... I'm considering buying an NXT to practice working with LabView between now and next year's season.

[markulrich]

What do you think is the "best" way to have students learn LabVIEW during the offseason? Is there something better than the lego NXT, something more similar to what FIRST will use? Is there a good simulator (built into LabVIEW??) that students could use at home?

[lingomaniac88]

I think you can make a user interface that you can play around with.

A basic instructional video can be found here.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by lingomaniac88

Hmm... I'm considering buying an NXT to practice working with LabView between now and next year's season.

Same here.

I see LabView dominating most certainly the rookie teams, as well as the more advanced veteran teams. I think a lot of veteran teams will be at a disadvantage this year, when they just touch LabView for the time in January, while others have been practicing on their NXTs for months. I have a feeling that next year's game will heavily weight a team's ability to use some higher-end sensors, and I think that LabView is really going to help out in this regard.

My 2 cents.
Jacob

[Richard McClellan]

Originally Posted by markulrich

What do you think is the "best" way to have students learn LabVIEW during the offseason? Is there something better than the lego NXT, something more similar to what FIRST will use? Is there a good simulator (built into LabVIEW??) that students could use at home?

The Lego NXT is probably a good option for learning LabVIEW right now. However, I believe that NI is going to try and get the new controllers to the teams prior to kickoff so that they can start learning a little bit early. The last thing they want is for build season to start and have everyone struggle to learn LabVIEW in 6 weeks. Nothing is definite yet, but they said something might be ready at the end of summer/early fall time period.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by richardmcc2

The Lego NXT is probably a good option for learning LabVIEW right now.

I agree. Anything that will allow a team to become more familiar with LabVIEW will give them a head start, and the NXT is a great platform for doing so.

Originally Posted by richardmcc2

However, I believe that NI is going to try and get the new controllers to the teams prior to kickoff so that they can start learning a little bit early.

That's the plan, inasmuch as I am aware. However, plans are contingent of a lot of things going right and are subject to change - everybody will be apprised of the situation as it draws closer, I promise.

-Danny