[FTC]: Field Management Software Review

[RNasir]

I'm glad everything worked well for you. I put a lot of work into that piece of software.

We were concerned about the frequency of changing the automatically-run programs; as far as I know it is much more common to switch autonomous programs based on (for example) alliance setup than it is to switch tele-operated programs. Having your robot do completely the wrong thing (and probably crash into a wall or something worse) in autonomous because you forgot to update your config file is no fun. That's why the FMS doesn't run autonomous automatically.

That said, I think that the teams are overall taking pretty well to the Program Chooser and automatically-run tele-op program model, so maybe we don't need to be as concerned about that in the future. What do you all think?

[ttldomination]

I has a question. .

What happens when/if we don't have an autonomous program? Do we just place the robot on the field, or do we have to select the teleop program or do we create an empty autonomous?

[emmell]

I recommend using an empty autonomous program. The template works fine for that. That way the program is doing some kind of diagnostic to the screen even if it's just sitting on top of the platform.

[jbbjjbt]

Originally Posted by RNasir

I'm glad everything worked well for you. I put a lot of work into that piece of software.

We were concerned about the frequency of changing the automatically-run programs; as far as I know it is much more common to switch autonomous programs based on (for example) alliance setup than it is to switch tele-operated programs. Having your robot do completely the wrong thing (and probably crash into a wall or something worse) in autonomous because you forgot to update your config file is no fun. That's why the FMS doesn't run autonomous automatically.

That said, I think that the teams are overall taking pretty well to the Program Chooser and automatically-run tele-op program model, so maybe we don't need to be as concerned about that in the future. What do you all think?

Thanks to you and FIRST for putting out the FMS. I would have liked to have it much sooner but I'm thankful to get it now. The bluetooth hookup is much better than on the FTC Controller Station. Also the documentation is the best Bluetooth guide I've seen for troubleshooting.

Reguarding the Program Chooser, it needs updated since "single" is not an option anymore. Also I still see and get lots of questions about how to get Program Chooser on the NXT. Especially now that the FMS is available, a direct download of Program Chooser needs to be available, so that you don't need to go thru FTC Controller Station to get it.

I believe you are correct that teams will want to be able to change autonomous programs on the fly.