Small FMS timer bug

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

It appears the FMS does not properly measure time during the matches. It seems to add about 5 seconds to each 2-minute match. I noticed this while watching a webcast of the Milwaukee Regional and doing some timing measurements for something unrelated on my computer, and confirmed it while I was at the Midwest Regional this past weekend (to make sure it wasn't somehow related to the webcast).

I don't really think this is a big deal or anything; it's more of an interesting curiosity. However, I wonder how many matches teams have lost due to something that occurred in the last 5 seconds when the match should have been over? I'm pretty sure this has happened to us more than once. It's a little irritating to think that we may have won some of those matches if FIRST had followed their own rules... (I know, we've probably won some in those last 5 seconds too so it probably evens out...)

This is interesting. Does this happen every time or does it happen only occasionally.

The reason I asked is that I have just asked our coders to implement an automatic brake feature that puts the brake on our winch with 3 seconds left - I don't like depending on our drivers to remember in the heat of battle if it is easily fixed. From what our coders have been able to discover, there is no "what is the match time" function available on the cRio -- on the Classmate, yes, but not the cRio. So... no problem. We can watch for the first enable after Auton Mode and start counting seconds. When we get to 117, time to throw the brake with 3 seconds to spare...

...except now do we have to wait until 122?

Hmmm...

Anyone have a more elegant solution?

Joe J.