cRio external 'co-processor' options

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

Actually, both NICs are given static IPs. The access-point-facing IP is 10.xx.yy.2 (where xxyy is the team number in base 10 digits), and the camera-facing IP is 192.168.0.3

And to elaborate further, (for beta testing at least) the other devices (like driver station and host PC) are also given fixed IP's based on team number.
I put the attached pic together for our team.

The downside to this is that it limits us to only 25499 teams.

[EHaskins]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

Actually, both NICs are given static IPs. The access-point-facing IP is 10.xx.yy.2 (where xxyy is the team number in base 10 digits), and the camera-facing IP is 192.168.0.3. I imagine there's a way to change these from the cRIO software, but I don't know how, nor can I think of a reason for bothering to do it.

Originally Posted by PhilBot

And to elaborate further, (for beta testing at least) the other devices (like driver station and host PC) are also given fixed IP's based on team number.
I put the attached pic together for our team.

The downside to this is that it limits us to only 25499 teams.

Thanks.

[ShotgunNinja]

Three words: Downloading the Internet.

(Just kidding)

But yeah, this is very nice. One possible tweak that someone might think about is designing a Bluetooth interface, then having the robot connect through someone's laptop and beam streaming video from the new cameras to a video stream server. Make it happen!

EDIT: Anyone know any good whitepapers on the digital stream format the FIRST cameras send out?

[EHaskins]

Originally Posted by ShotgunNinja

Three words: Downloading the Internet.

(Just kidding)

But yeah, this is very nice. One possible tweak that someone might think about is designing a Bluetooth interface, then having the robot connect through someone's laptop and beam streaming video from the new cameras to a video stream server. Make it happen!

EDIT: Anyone know any good whitepapers on the digital stream format the FIRST cameras send out?

It appears from the demo videos that they use a standard Ethernet camera, and that it is possible to stream the data over the Wireless connection.

Usually Ethernet cameras use very simple protocols, often just a stream of JPEGs, but there doesn't seem to be very much standardization in this area.

Coding4Fun did an article about streaming Ethernet camera data, and doing motion detection a while ago.

[keen101]

Here is a neat Linksys Linux robot that uses an ethernet camera. Maybe you can learn something from his project.

http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot/

[X-Istence]

My question with the cRio, are the teams allowed to write code directly for the FPGA? Verilog is nifty, and being able to accomplish certain tasks very fast could be win-win.

Also, where would I be able to find more information? As an Alumni I hear bits and pieces from my team, but not nearly enough and this year it looks like the control board alone is going to be pretty awesome.

Also, if someone is doing motion based stuff, take a look at OpenCV from Intel. That is some cool code

[Nate Smith]

Originally Posted by X-Istence

My question with the cRio, are the teams allowed to write code directly for the FPGA? Verilog is nifty, and being able to accomplish certain tasks very fast could be win-win.

Also, where would I be able to find more information? As an Alumni I hear bits and pieces from my team, but not nearly enough and this year it looks like the control board alone is going to be pretty awesome.

Also, if someone is doing motion based stuff, take a look at OpenCV from Intel. That is some cool code

First, for more info...http://first.wpi.edu/FRC/csoverview.html

Also, my understanding is that teams will NOT be able to program the FPGA directly, as that is where FIRST is storing their "master code" for the system, similar to the master CPU in the older IFI system that handled the disable codes from the field, etc.