Selecting autonomous modes using FRC PC Dashboard

[ellisk]

I'd like to send information to the robot regarding position, balls, etc to let it know how to behave during autonomous. Last year, we used switches on our OI, but I wanted to know if I could use something analogous to switches on the FRC PC Dashboard to avoid having to build physical switches.

Thanks.

[Greg McKaskle]

If you do not plug in the I/O board and leave the Configuration set to the Compatible I/O, the four sliders and eight of the buttons are controls, meaning you can enter values in and they will be sent to the robot.

Greg McKaskle

[Radical Pi]

Closest thing you could do is a webserver on the robot for config. I think there are a few tutorials on how to do that

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by Radical Pi

Closest thing you could do is a webserver on the robot for config. I think there are a few tutorials on how to do that

...which you could not access on the field. The FMS field network blocks all extraneous traffic like this.

[Mike Mahar]

Be careful with this approach. We had problems last year. The data from the driver's station is sent during the disabled period and not during autonomous. We were reading the our autonomous mode from digital input pins on the driver's station and they were being sent to the robot properly. Just as the FMS was switching from disabled to autonomous, however, we would get one last packet that was full of garbage. This would set our autonomous mode to something random.

I don't know if this was an artifact for the old driver's station or something inherent in the comm system. If it's the comm system you will have to code around it.

[Greg McKaskle]

Originally Posted by Mike Mahar

Be careful with this approach. We had problems last year. The data from the driver's station is sent during the disabled period and not during autonomous...

The control system was modified to make this a bit easier this year. Definitely test it using the Practice mode, but I believe you'll find that the joystick throttles and I/O values are latched for you. The values during auto enabled will be the same as when disabled just prior to the match.

Greg McKaskle