Regarding The cRio

[davidthefat]

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/203964

I am assuming that is the cRio that we get... Is it legal to used a 2nd crio on your robot? Its a PowerPC based controller... Thats interesting isnt it? My mentor said that he was willing to buy another cRio for me to practice on, so why not use 2 on the robot?

[Robototes2412]

Umm, i dont know. i do have a quick question for you though. Are you prepared to have two robots to program for? They cannot have any communication with either eachother or the world, and there is only one gaming adapter. At most, i'd use an arduino, but a whole other cRIO, i wouldn't.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Robototes2412

Umm, i dont know. i do have a quick question for you though. Are you prepared to have two robots to program for? They cannot have any communication with either eachother or the world, and there is only one gaming adapter. At most, i'd use an arduino, but a whole other cRIO, i wouldn't.

My mentor thinks its most wise to work on the processor the final robot would have... I want to use 2 cRios on one robot because I think a ATmegaa284p won't have enough juice to run the image processing from multiple sensors very efficiently...

[Al3+]

Hmmmm...

<R56> ROBOTS must be controlled via the programmable National Instruments cRIO-FRC (National Instruments part number 780406-01). Other controllers shall not be used.

Custom circuits and additional electronics are allowed to utilize the Port 2 Ethernet bus and/or the CAN-bus to communicate between devices. Note however, that the ROBOT must be controlled by the cRIO-FRC (see Rule <R56>). Thus, any additional devices on the Ethernet or CAN-bus must not provide command signals that do not originate from the cRIO-FRC It is our intent to incrementally open access to the full control system technologies in a controlled manner that reduces the risk of “unanticipated surprises” as we gain experience with the system.

That's what the competition manual says; I'm not sure how to interpret it or how you plan to use the other cRIO.

Edit: And also <R22> as mentioned above.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Al3+

Hmmmm...

<R56> ROBOTS must be controlled via the programmable National Instruments cRIO-FRC (National Instruments part number 780406-01). Other controllers shall not be used.

Custom circuits and additional electronics are allowed to utilize the Port 2 Ethernet bus and/or the CAN-bus to communicate between devices. Note however, that the ROBOT must be controlled by the cRIO-FRC (see Rule <R56>). Thus, any additional devices on the Ethernet or CAN-bus must not provide command signals that do not originate from the cRIO-FRC It is our intent to incrementally open access to the full control system technologies in a controlled manner that reduces the risk of “unanticipated surprises” as we gain experience with the system.

That's what the competition manual says; I'm not sure how to interpret it or how you plan to use the other cRIO.

I have a theory that you can use the port 2 ethernet port and connect the crio from the port one. Some one end of the enternet goes to the # 1 port then into the #2 port of the other and the camera goes on the 2nd post of #1

[biojae]

As far as communications go, the second ethernet port on the cRio (one that communicates to FMS) can be used to talk to the second cRio.

<R68> All outputs from sensors, custom circuits and additional electronics shall connect to only
A. other custom circuits, or the following:
B. additional COTS electronics, or
C. input ports on the Digital Sidecar, or
D. input ports on the Analog Breakout, or
E. the RS-232 DB-9 serial port on the cRIO-FRC, or
F. the Ethernet bus connected to Port 2 of the cRIO-FRC,

Emphasis mine.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by biojae

As far as communications go, the second ethernet port on the cRio (one that communicates to FMS) can be used to talk to the second cRio.



Emphasis mine.

Its also probably possible to hook up another microcontroller as a Digital I/O

[biojae]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Its also probably possible to hook up another microcontroller as a Digital I/O

Which is correct, but if you have an ethernet port on your microcontroller (or 2nd cRio) why wouldn't you want to get 1 or more megabytes per second throughput?

Going through GPIO is going to be slower then ethernet.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by biojae

Which is correct, but if you have an ethernet port on your microcontroller (or 2nd cRio) why wouldn't you want to get 1 or more megabytes per second throughput?

Going through GPIO is going to be slower then ethernet.

If I have an ethernet port on the microcontroller (not a 2nd cRio) where would the camera plug in if the 2nd port is used up? Not using it on the microcontroller, its too much for it

[biojae]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

If I have an ethernet port on the microcontroller (not a 2nd cRio) where would the camera plug in if the 2nd port is used up? Not using it on the microcontroller, its too much for it

According to this Q&A post : http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=14423

"<R68> Says the Ethernet bus connected to Port 2 of the cRIO-FRC may be used.

Does this mean that a network switch may be used to communicate between devices on the bus as long as the command signals originate from the cRIO-FRC?"

Yes.

Now keep in mind that rules change from year to year, these are only this year's.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by biojae

According to this Q&A post : http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=14423



Now keep in mind that rules change from year to year, these are only this year's.

A network switch! Never thought of that

[virtuald]

If I recall correctly theres a rule somewhere restricting the amount you can spend on a single electronic components. I think it was $400, so that excludes the cRio (which you can get one at a discount from NI for something like $1500 I think).

[Radical Pi]

I don't think you can count an extra cRIO as KOP component. Also, would the cost be considered 750 or 1400 dollars (the offseason rate vs full)

[davidthefat]

http://zone.ni.com/wv/app/doc/p/id/wv-1291/nextonly/y

[davidthefat]

http://www.robotshop.com/roboard-rb-...omputer-2.html

this sounds like a better investment: its cheaper (way cheaper) and its C++