Future use of cRIO?

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by tdlrali

RyanN is correct, their current plan is to give one controller to teams to be reused every year, while teams can buy an additional controller every year at an immensely reduced cost.

my issue with this stems from the fact that it means that the new controller will not be upgraded for years. I see this as FIRST getting into the same issues which pushed them away from IFI. Locking into a controller for multiple years while important for teams makes them majority supplier dependent. If it truly is the case that NI is only going to give one controller in the first year and then recycle them for financial reasons, I hate to see the year that NI is not doing well. Seems to me that this would indicate some hesitance in having the whole program on their backs financially.

I hate the idea of only getting one controller, as it raises many issues which teams don't currently have. As many would happen demo robots become difficult, helping pre-rookies at off-season events becomes impossible, and it puts a huge liability on teams breaking their controllers as most could not afford replacements (in the past 2 years teams could use older controllers if they needed to).

For lack of a better way to describe it this seems really cheap on behalf of NI and/or FIRST.

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

puts a huge liability on teams breaking their controllers as most could not afford replacements (in the past 2 years teams could use older controllers if they needed to).

How would you expect teams to break the controller?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

How would you expect teams to break the controller?

Bad wiring and unexpected loads on the connections seem to be the two biggest killers of the IFI controllers. Both happen to a nonzero amount of teams every season in spite of their best efforts, rookies and veterans alike.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

How would you expect teams to break the controller?

Dropping metal shavings in a sensitive spot.

Miswiring of power and consequent electrical fryage.

Accidentally drilling through it.

Fatal EMI induced by nearby arc welding.

Mechanical impact on a plug-in module.

Corruption of firmware.

Water damage.

Never underestimate the ability of a team of high school students and engineers to break expensive things.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Dropping metal shavings in a sensitive spot.

Miswiring of power and consequent electrical fryage.

Accidentally drilling through it.

Fatal EMI induced by nearby arc welding.

Mechanical impact on a plug-in module.

Corruption of firmware.

Water damage.

Never underestimate the ability of a team of high school students and engineers to break expensive things.

I learned many years ago never to underestimate the abilities of a team of high school students and engineers working together.

The 'breaking expensive things' is an added bonus.

[tdlrali]

Dropping metal shavings in a sensitive spot.

Miswiring of power and consequent electrical fryage.

Accidentally drilling through it.

Fatal EMI induced by nearby arc welding.

Mechanical impact on a plug-in module.

Corruption of firmware.

Water damage.

Never underestimate the ability of a team of high school students and engineers to break expensive things.

Screwing in program cables and then running autonomous... oh wait, no more serial cables

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Dropping metal shavings in a sensitive spot.

Miswiring of power and consequent electrical fryage.

Accidentally drilling through it.

Fatal EMI induced by nearby arc welding.

Mechanical impact on a plug-in module.

Corruption of firmware.

Water damage.

Never underestimate the ability of a team of high school students and engineers to break expensive things.

The mechanical impact I know won't kill it unless you go at the plug-in module with a jackhammer.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

The mechanical impact I know won't kill it unless you go at the plug-in module with a jackhammer.

In Atlanta they were careful when doing drop demonstrations not to drop the cRIO on the exposed DB connectors. Broken and bent pins, especially when the bumpers for the .1" pin header conversions are attached, will be a not uncommon occurrance.
The other sides of the cRIO are pretty solid.

Never underestimate the power of a robot to gut itself...

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

In Atlanta they were careful when doing drop demonstrations not to drop the cRIO on the exposed DB connectors. Broken and bent pins, especially when the bumpers for the .1" pin header conversions are attached, will be a not uncommon occurrance.
The other sides of the cRIO are pretty solid.

Never underestimate the power of a robot to gut itself...

The datasheet is kind of irritating in that regard. It says six different directions. One would imagine it means all six sides of the module including the side with pins.

[Greg McKaskle]

I'm glad to see that not everyone was fooled into thinking the cRIO is indestructible. They certainly aren't. Each of these methods has a decent chance of damaging the fundamental monolithic backplane, and that will be a somewhat expensive lesson to learn. Rugged != Indestructible.

Greg McKaskle

[Brandon Holley]

This will pose an interesting problem to teams who like to build 2 bots every year.