Driver Station 2010 - Netbook?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Our robots communicate over wifi with relative safety. Why can't the driver's station? There goes the ESD problem.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Our robots communicate over wifi with relative safety. Why can't the driver's station? There goes the ESD problem.

Just thought about this again. This doesn't solve the tethering in the pits issue, where the ESD incidents are occuring.

[Paul Copioli]

.... Or how about a company who already solved the USB hub problem without the need of an ooperating system make the driver station next year ...

I think many of us put too much stock in COTS solutions. How about those orbit balls? A solution from a supplier that has a vested interest in the success of its customers has always proven to be a better approach. In my real job, the suppliers that give us the most troubles are the suppliers that are larger than us and provide a COTS solution for our needs. Often times I find that an angineered solution for our problem is much less expensive and more reliable.

[Kingofl337]

I think there are a few solutions:

1. FIRST should just fix the current DS and protect the inputs and the ethernet ports. Based on the current design, it would cost a little more but make the DS very robust. Also, give us a DB-25 instead of PWM pins for I/O

2. Make a very robust set DS's that will travel with the field, teams will just connect thier gamepads and a DB-25 cable for I/O to the DS and play. Teams would use a virtual driver station with a breakout board for testing at home.

3. Teams use a Netbook running a fixed Linux/XP embedded image to run their robot on and off the field. Use a USB breakout board for I/O. The image would need to be fixed as it would prevent crashing caused by malware / viruses.

edit
4. First could give a bootable thumb drive out and that could have a fixed image on it and teams could start their laptops up with that. First could list tested laptops and teams could choose to purchase a discounted laptop that is tested to work with the fixed image. I'm sure FIRST could swing a group buy for 1500+ teams.