[BB]: Beta Hardware

[EricH]

For those that want a look at Gen 2 of the control system driver's station: http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2009...-shipping.html

It goes to some of the beta teams almost at once.

And there are some other items of interest, too.

[Chris is me]

Is that a USB E-stop button?

(Anyone notice "Team 111" on the driver station? Peculiar.)

Excited to test new shiny equipment with what looks like live camera feedback.

[AdamHeard]

I just hope that's not an app running inside an OS...

We're getting a bit far from KISS ifi interface I loved so much.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

(Anyone notice "Team 111" on the driver station? Peculiar.)

Interesting to us too. We weren't involved in the new DS (this picture is the first we've seen of it), so I guess someone at FIRST randomly chose our team number for testing.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I just hope that's not an app running inside an OS...

Looks like a labview app to me. There's no real way that you could run something as complicated as a Classmate without an OS. I certainly understand your concern though - a reboot of the Classmate could take longer than the whole match.

[IndySam]

OK electronics guys, whats the board hooked into the USB port?

[Allison]

Originally Posted by IndySam

OK electronics guys, whats the board hooked into the USB port?

You mean the breadboard (white board) or the fancy board that is making us capable of using custom circuits?

I am happy to see the size is still manageable. I hope power is going to provided on the field as a standard in case someone doesn't charge their batteries.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by IndySam

OK electronics guys, whats the board hooked into the USB port?

A guess only, but my assumption is that that's a board which allows you to hook up analog and digital signals, i.e. the equivalent of the analog and digital I/O on last year's DS.

[Cory]

Can we have IFI back now?

This is the new driver station? Seriously?

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by Cory

Can we have IFI back now?

This is the new driver station? Seriously?

Seems kind of kludgy, not to mention bootup times on the Classmate.

What was wrong with the 09 Driver Station? It wasn't perfect, but it wouldn't have been that hard to fix.

[eitang]

From the picture is seems to be a Intel Clamshell classmate so here are the specs for it:

http://www.classmatepc.com/where-to-...ll/tech-specs/

I also noticed that the Wifi indicator is lit, could this mean that we don't need to use a router any more?

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by eitang

I also noticed that the Wifi indicator is lit, could this mean that we don't need to use a router any more?

Oh, that's an interesting observation. If somehow the disable button, the circuitry on the right (which I assume is for custom inputs like pots), and the USB hub were all integrated together into one box, I would take back my previous post calling it "kludgy."

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Cory

Can we have IFI back now?

This is the new driver station? Seriously?

I imagine the final version will at the very least have some kind of shiny enclosure. I edit:hope that the DS is not an application running on top of an OS either.

Can't say I don't miss IFI though...

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I bet that the DS is not an application running on top of an OS either.

Can't say I don't miss IFI though...

Doesn't LabView have to run on an OS though?
The screen in the picture looks similar to the "Dashboard" in 2009, but not quite, which is why I'm assuming its some sort of Driver Station code.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I imagine the final version will at the very least have some kind of shiny enclosure. I edit:hope that the DS is not an application running on top of an OS either.

Can't say I don't miss IFI though...

I imagine FIRST isn't going to change the externals of the classmate at all.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I imagine the final version will at the very least have some kind of shiny enclosure. I edit:hope that the DS is not an application running on top of an OS either.

Can't say I don't miss IFI though...

I don't see how, when we've already been told we're getting the classmate PC. There's no way this is getting repackaged into something less kludgy. Maybe they'll have all the accessories inside a project box or something. Hopefully this year they have the foresight to include some pullup resistors so we can use non USB joysticks without making everything even more kludgy...

Whatever though. I just hope it works. There's going to be a LOT of standing around for 3 minutes waiting for these to reboot so a match can start if it's anything like last year.