New TipJar Training Video - Making Friends with the FRC Advanced Robot Framework

[LVMastery]

Hello All,

I wanted to announce the release of another in our TipJar series of FRC LabVIEW Training videos.

You can find it here:
http://www.lvmastery.com/tipjar2009-01-05


This Blog entry is the fifth in a series intended primarily for FIRST Robotics Competiton (FRC) teams and their mentors.

In a nutshell, I DO recommend that teams use the Advanced Robot Framework, as I explain in the video, for these main reasons:
- More robust, larger code can be more easily developed and maintained
- Code is more easily encapsulated, making it easier for multiple programmers to work in parallel
- Code screen size doesn't grow without bound, making debugging and programming easier
- The use of typedefs help maintain a consistency between the autonomous and teleop code

In this blog entry, I touch on:
- A tour of the project structure and Robot Main.vi in the Advanced Framework
- An explanation of clusters, and getting data into and out of them
- How typedefs are used in the framework, and how to modify them
- How shift registers are used to store data in loops
- How to add additional state or robot data to the typedefs for advanced robot code
- Using the "init" case of the Teleop code to open references to devices
- The two different types of autonomous mode: independent and iterative, and recommendations on which to use
- Some of the intricacies of sending data between autonomous and tele-operated modes


And for FRC Team members, mentors, teachers and parents only:


I also wanted to announce in celebration of Competition Kickoff, a LabVIEW training giveaway. We will be randomly selecting 2 winners each week from entries received via this link: http://www.lvmastery.com/FRCGiveaway

All the best,
Ben