Question About Robot Controller

[Pavan Dave]

I have been seeing many posts throughout the year about USB on the robot controller and many people are hoping that IFI does it 'right' this year but my question is, whose responsible. FIRST or IFI?

I thought it was FIRST for a long time seeing as they want us to design our own USB adapter but a few posts have made me question IFI.

What do you guys think?

Pavan.

[Peter Matteson]

IFI designs the controller so they would be responsible for the update to USB.
I believe if F.I.R.S.T. asked IFI to change the controller, within reason, it would happen like any other specified component. However I wouldn't assume you'll see USB this year. There are a lot of cost of production, ease of programming, and power management issues involved in this type of change.

I would be pleasantly surprised if we did see the change though.

[Kingofl337]

Don't think you will see the serial port replaced any time soon. IFI would just be dropping on the board a USB-to-serial chip if they add USB. Then we would loose a serial port. Which means no co-processors, no LCD's, or anything for that matter that would normally talk via serial. All we would have is the single TTL serial port and if we keep using the camera we would be stuck. They could always replace the PIC with a USB integrated but then you would need a drivers disk for the RC. Which of coarse people could loose see (2006 CBOT Disk). Not to mention the R&D of totally redesigning the RC and writing new master code and user code.

Serial is not the enemy is very good standard that works well with everything. People need to buy better serial ports. Go look for PCMCIA Serial Ports not USB your downloads will scream.

[MikeDubreuil]

As Peter said, FIRST is ultimately a customer of IFI's at this point. However, they share a wonderful symbiotic relationship.

I forgot exactly when the change occurred, prior to about 2000 FIRST provided a control system in the kit that was designed and perhaps manufactured by themselves. This was done primarily by Eric Rasmussen of DEKA Research. After each robotics season you had to send the controller and radios back to FIRST to be reused the next year.

IFI grew out of a need for a company to design, manufacture and support a FIRST control system. As you can tell from the quality of their products that FIRST has benefited greatly from their involvement.

[ZZII 527]

As a lucky member of the "I've voided my RC warranty" club, I can say with relative certainty that there is enough room on the RC circuit for a USB interface. (If they do add one, I would bet it is just an FTDI USB-to-TTL chip.) I agree with Kingofl337, though, that having the serial port provides a little bit more functionality.

I would like to see a USB interface for joysticks on the OI. That is a different story, though. The OI must be a USB host, not an end-device, I think.