CRIO-FRCIII

[Arhowk]

Is there anywhere to ask questions about the new CRIO for the 2015 season? I meant to ask about it at St. Louis last year but didn't have the time.

Also, when's the earliest time to get our hands on it? I remember hearing fall of this year.

[Knufire]

The FRC NI community page would probably be the way to go: https://decibel.ni.com/content/commu...w=discussions\

Some information about the roboRIO is also in the documents section of the same page: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30419

[geomapguy]

Originally Posted by Arhowk

Is there anywhere to ask questions about the new CRIO for the 2015 season? I meant to ask about it at St. Louis last year but didn't have the time.

Also, when's the earliest time to get our hands on it? I remember hearing fall of this year.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30419

[alex.lew]

Also, when's the earliest time to get our hands on it? I remember hearing fall of this year.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...-alpha-testing
Several teams were chosen as alpha testers for the Athena/roboRIO. You can check out their team websites for a summary of results, images, etc.

[Arhowk]

Originally Posted by electrian21

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...-alpha-testing
Several teams were chosen as alpha testers for the Athena/roboRIO. You can check out their team websites for a summary of results, images, etc.

That's a shame, I know we would have loved to alpha test (I'm assuming it was either random selection out of teams that won Delphi's Quality award or submitted applications)

Anyway, thanks for the links!

[NotInControl]

What is your question about the 2015 Control System. I will try to answer it as best I can.

I am part of the Alpha Test Team.

Regards,
Kevin

[Arhowk]

Well, for either of you I suppose

1. How is the new Java API? Is it simply the old one or did they re-do it with all Java 8ness
2. Is it easy to upgrade / switch JRE's on the niRIO?
3. (not familiar with C++ on cRIO but our team is considering C++ for 2015) I've heard most about the upgrade from Java ME to SE but is it also being updated to C++11? (or does it already have C++11)
4. How easy is it to write code on standard Java SE / cRIO Java and port it to niRIO?
5. What are the deploy times?

[Jefferson]

Originally Posted by Arhowk

Well, for either of you I suppose

1. How is the new Java API? Is it simply the old one or did they re-do it with all Java 8ness
2. Is it easy to upgrade / switch JRE's on the niRIO?
3. (not familiar with C++ on cRIO but our team is considering C++ for 2015) I've heard most about the upgrade from Java ME to SE but is it also being updated to C++11? (or does it already have C++11)
4. How easy is it to write code on standard Java SE / cRIO Java and port it to niRIO?
5. What are the deploy times?

We are a C++ team, so I'll take a stab at some of your questions and leave the rest for others.

1. They are switching IDEs to Eclipse (as is C++), but the libraries are staying much the same. Somebody else will need to elaborate on any differences in the API.
2. Don't know
3. Windriver does not use C++11. It's stuck somewhere years back in C++ versions. We are using the latest version of Eclipse and C++11
4. Libraries aren't expected to change much, but there may be some differences for Java. Somebody chime in here.
5. Deploy times are pretty quick. It executes script in the command line in Eclipse that ftps the program to the robot restarts the program, no more restarting the OS on every deploy. The whole process takes around 30sec.

[Jared]

I have a few questions.

How long does it take for the whole thing to turn on, including the radio?

Is it still WPIlib for Java?

What's the radio look like? Are we still using the d-links?

How low does the voltage have to go to brown out the radio/controller?

[Arhowk]

Originally Posted by Jefferson

Deploy times are pretty quick. It executes script in the command line in Eclipse that ftps the program to the robot restarts the program, no more restarting the OS on every deploy. The whole process takes around 30sec.

hm. Faster, not by much

Originally Posted by Jared

How long does it take for the whole thing to turn on, including the radio?

based on his timings, the bootup time is about the same

Is it still WPIlib for Java?

yes

What's the radio look like? Are we still using the d-links?

i believe so

[vinnie]

How good is the support for standard Linux programs, do you think it might be able to run ROS?

[Peter Johnson]

Originally Posted by vinnie

How good is the support for standard Linux programs, do you think it might be able to run ROS?

The most recent image I've tested is an older Angstrom distribution. In particular, it uses an older libc6 (2.11), which makes it a little difficult to use the most recent packages (many of which require 2.12), but I have successfully installed gdb, gcc, python and other packages with careful use of opkg install --nodeps. I have not tried installing ROS in particular, but there's no fundamental reason it can't be made to work even if the out-of-the-box packages don't.

For example, here's a tutorial on NI's website that installs PostgreSQL and uses it with LabVIEW on the Linux platform: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30308

[xXhunter47Xx]

Originally Posted by Arhowk

i believe so

I thought the roboRIO was the radio as well? That's what I saw at the display model at San Diego or at least what I thought I saw.

Do any of you know what the Solenoid Module will be? I've been told it's a CANipede RCM but it looks a bit old to be used in conjuncture with the new hardware.

[Tom Line]

Here is an overview of the new 2015 control system:

http://www.fightingpi.org/Resources/...ha/Alpha.shtml

Arohowk, please don't guess at answers. We are currently not using dLinks. We are using USB radios whose drivers reside on the RoboRIO and who don't require a boot-up like the current radio systems do.

The system will be on display on our 2013 Ultimate Ascent robot this weekend Waterford, and again at the State Championship. In addition, National Instruments reps are planning on coming up to do a LabVIEW seminar and an hour long seminar on the new control system at the State Championships Thursday morning as a part of our '1718 Presents' seminar series. We'll be releasing more info as States get closer.

Once the competition season ends we'll restart our Alpha testing and begin updating the web page with more information.

Please keep in mind the software is still VERY much in the development stage. When we met late last year, some of the languages still weren't completely functional. Take everything with a very large grain of salt: the same folks developing the Alpha hardware are also supporting the current FRC season. Don't expect much progress for a while.

[Jefferson]

Whoa. Gunna try to keep up here.

Those times are from my recollection. Please don't quote me on them just yet.

They are trying to get a USB WiFi dongle working and signs are pretty positive right now. That would mean no more DLink.

The Pneumatics Control Module (PCM) is produced by Cross the Road electronics (makers of the CANipede) communicating via CAN with the roboRio.

Even with the PCM and a breakout for the expansion slot (called the MXP) it should still weigh considerably less than the cRIO. I haven't weighed everything, but it's not close to the chunk of metal the cRIO is.

The roboRIO reboots somewhere below 5V (don't remember exactly) but there may be loss of functionality prior to that. I was just watching for a reboot.