IFI Critique

[John Gutmann]

I noticed in another thread that other people and myself were saying what they should do and how they should change the RC and OI. So post any critique or changes you have about the Control system in general, victors, radios, OI/RC, power issues, connections, joysticks.

[lukevanoort]

Higher current ratings on the spikes would be nice, not even much higher. Just enough so you don't have to have a fuse and can just rely on the circuit breaker.

[Donut]

Definitely a new hook up for the joysticks, or an adapter in the kit to convert common joystick types to a gameport connection.

I would like the ability to control the LED outputs from the OI while the OI's LCD display is set to userbyte. We used the userbyte to display our shooter speed on the OI, and ran into a problem that the LEDs on the OI (including the ones you wire up yourself) don't work while the OI display is in userbyte mode.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Donut

Definitely a new hook up for the joysticks, or an adapter in the kit to convert common joystick types to a gameport connection.

I assume you mean video game types, because there's no way the OI will ever support USB joysticks. Just too complex. (At least with the current stuff.)

Originally Posted by Donut

I would like the ability to control the LED outputs from the OI while the OI's LCD display is set to userbyte. We used the userbyte to display our shooter speed on the OI, and ran into a problem that the LEDs on the OI (including the ones you wire up yourself) don't work while the OI display is in userbyte mode.

The problem with that is that the user byte is in the same data block as the first 8 LEDs. To fix this, they would have to break backwards compatibility.

[Donut]

I don't really use joysticks so I don't know what current types they come in. If they could make converters to convert any type of easily available joystick to the required hook up for the OI it would be nice.

I wasn't aware that was the problem, I'll keep that in mind next year.

[Elgin Clock]

One of my ideas this year (and I really wish I got a chance to talk to someone at IFI personally who would have some swing in this area as far as getting it implemented) was to have the program and tether ports on the RC be board mountable snap on types.

In essence, It would allow the option of a right angle port coming off the side as is coming off the RC (and OI I guess too) now, but also leave an option to have the ports come straight off the board as well. In other words, 90 degrees rotated to where they come off the board now.

This would allow more space to mount other things next to the RC/OI on your robot/controller box and not have to deal with leaving a channel open next to the ports to slide the cables in and out of.

I can sketch up something quick if anyone is interested in the basic concept of what I mean.

I know that where I work, we make surface mount (single) connectors that get soldered on a circuit board, and then another connector snaps on it rather than screws on. It still maintains a tight fit though. I'm thinking this basic use, but in terms of the ports for the cables on the RC/OI.

I forget what the easy snap interfaces are called though (SLB maybe?)
I'll have to check and show an example of what I mean.

[Hutch]

Better connectors on the RC would be my number one suggestion. It was a pain to get the serial connection for the camera to stay on the whole match, and it just sucks when the power connectors come unsoldered and I have to open up my RC to solder them back in. Same goes for the victors; sometimes the PWM's just don't fit in and I have to take a knife to the plastic to make room.

It's also silly they haven't switched to USB; my new laptop has no serial port at all and carrying around a dock is cubersome. USB is faster and definitely the way to go.

I think almost everyone would agree that they'd like a way to get more data back to the OI, as well as a less cumbersome method of getting to output (wiring around joystick ports is a pain).

On the software side, the fast loop should be called during the autonomous part of the default code. That's when you need your sensor data most, and the comments around the function indicate that it's always called (we had no rotary encoders in autonomous for a few rounds because of this).

Also in general less clutter in the default code would be nice. Something that follows more of the guidelines of Code Complete with less block comment function headers, a more consistent naming style, etc.

Overall, I like most of IFI's products, they just have some serious quality issues. It's gotten better (I've had a lot more problems with the connectors on old RC's), but still, just a general look at the quality of their products and where improvements could be made would be a good call for IFI.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

I would like to see on the RC:

1: A PC/104 feedthrough connector (to be able to add external functionality)
2: The ability to pass video to the OI (Most robots that have autonomy do not work within visual range of their operator)
3: A USB port(s) instead of the Joystick ports.

With the above you could customize the RC for whatever task is at hand.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Every wireless video system I've seen is 2.4GHz or better. I'm certain our wireless modems don't have near the bandwidth to send video. So that would require a major reworking of the entire RF system. You're better just getting a premade wireless video system and operating it independent of the IFI system.

[Astronouth7303]

And as much as you all wish for it, USB will not appear on the OI for at least many years.

It's hard to make a USB device. It's even harder to make a USB host (as the OI would have to be).

On top of it, there is no standard for USB joysticks like there is for drives and keyboards. So, in order for it to work, you would have to be able to load the Windows drivers (that ship with every joystick) on to the OI. This would entail:

• Converting the OI from a PIC processor to an x86 processor
• Have the OI run some version of Windows
• Add a CD drive and a floppy to the OI (or connectors for one)
• Be able to connect a monitor to the OI so you can figure out why it isn't working
• Mouse and keyboard so you can make it work
• All this while keeping it relatively inexpensive.

Bottom line: USB joysticks are not going to happen before any of you graduate.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

there is no standard for USB joysticks like there is for drives and keyboards

Yes there is, the standard is called Human Interface Device and there are many USB joysticks which are "HID-compliant".

[Donut]

Is there an alternative to USB joysticks besides the hide to find gameport ones? Or are they equally hard to find?

[fimmel]

what if they let us hook up a laptop to the oi not just as a dashboard bu as input as well. then connect the usb joystick to the laptop. if they did that u could use a program to communicate to the oi throught usb (having the oi be the client) and forwarding the data from the joystick.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by fimmel

what if they let us hook up a laptop to the oi not just as a dashboard bu as input as well. then connect the usb joystick to the laptop. if they did that u could use a program to communicate to the oi throught usb (having the oi be the client) and forwarding the data from the joystick.

If they allowed this, then there would be some teams exploiting this to gain an advantage to use extra software to perform extremely complex functions.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Bottom line: USB joysticks are not going to happen before any of you graduate.

... and just out of curiosity, how much might you be willing to wager on this very declarative statement?

-dave