New Control System

[koka230]

Went to Richmond this weekend to the FIRST seminar and saw the new control system and was quite amazed by it. They kept mentioning a industrial version of the crio unit. Does anyone know what exactly it was made for, it might be a hint toward the game?
(If already discussed ignore this, haven't been on this website in a while )

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by koka230

They kept mentioning a industrial version of the crio unit. Does anyone know what exactly it was made for, it might be a hint toward the game?

Generally industrial quality indicates extended shock, vibration, and temperature specifications.

http://www.ni.com/compactrio/whatis.htm

[koka230]

well my point was what is the unit use for or on that is what i am asking

[markulrich]

It is used for data-acquisition and control, like when they monitor the big oil rigs. I'm sure it was picked because NI was giving a good deal and it will work well for this competition in general, not as a game hint specific to this year. More info can be found at:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5508

scroll down to "Applications"

[koka230]

ah, just a thought

[Alan Anderson]

The non-FIRST version of the cRIO is used for many things. Three in particular come to mind:

• Beam collimators for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, controlling the highest energies used in any machine in the world
• Adaptive optics mirror control for the Southern African Large Telescope, the biggest optical telescope in the world
• The highest-resolution atomic force microscope in the world

It's a very rugged, very capable, very common platform for embedded control systems.

[Jonathan Norris]

I think the control system may be too rugged... that thing weighs way too much. You can tell by the design of it that it was made for a table-top operation, and not for a weight-restricted robotics competition. I wonder if they will let us lighten the cast-steel casing which is a little overkill in my opinion... I took a look at it today and the circuit board comes off easily, so it could be done.

I'm not complaining that they gave us a very powerful new control system... I just hope they will let us lighten it (if the weight limit doesn't increase), because it doesn't look like they changed the design of the table-top version for our robotics competition.

[Greg McKaskle]

The cast steel is actually a lightweight cast of a magnesium alloy. If you've removed the back plate, perhaps you noticed how little the flat piece weighs. But put the pieces together and it does more and weighs more than the previous system.

There have been other discussions about the overall weight of the new components, but in the end, it will be the same for all teams. I'm sure you will not be allowed to punch holes in the cRIO, so you can spend your strategic planning time on something else.

Greg McKaskle

[Jon236]

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

The cast steel is actually a lightweight cast of a magnesium alloy. If you've removed the back plate, perhaps you noticed how little the flat piece weighs. But put the pieces together and it does more and weighs more than the previous system.

There have been other discussions about the overall weight of the new components, but in the end, it will be the same for all teams. I'm sure you will not be allowed to punch holes in the cRIO, so you can spend your strategic planning time on something else.

Greg McKaskle

And here I thought we needed to provide air-cooling for the modules!

[waialua359]

Does anyone have an estimated date on when we can purchase additional spare components for the new control system?
Andy?

Thanks.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Does anyone have an estimated date on when we can purchase additional spare components for the new control system?
Andy?

Thanks.

http://controlsystem.neofra.com/2009...l-system-parts

details it nicely.

AndyMark's side claims Dec 10th for most, 18th for the Driver Station.

NI claims starting December 1st, but calling that number got us nowhere after 3 transfers.

The Jaguars can be bought now from digikey, and obviously the networking equipment and joysticks can be bought from the usual places (I imagine newegg.com or amazon.com would be the cheapest).

[waialua359]

Thanks for the info.
Great link! We knew about the jaguars and ordered them already so far.

-Glenn

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Thanks for the info.
Great link! We knew about the jaguars and ordered them already so far.

-Glenn

No problem, if you guys somehow get the number for the cRIO to work, post what you did or who you talked to... We were transferred several times and everyone we spoke to was clueless.

[ericand]

I used the number posted in the forum 1-866-511-6285 and got transfered to sales for my zip code. The person that I talked to had just heard about the program, but was not setup with all the info to take my order. He did promise to find out and send me some email tomorrow regarding what needs to be done to order the parts.

He did have the info for the pricing (he said $749.75) and said he had received info about the program just today.

I'll provide more feedback when I get the email from NI tomorrow. It sounds like they are almost up and running to supply backup control systems.

[waialua359]

Thanks, look forward to seeing you folks again in Oregon!