Regarding The cRio

[Fletch1373]

Just putting this out there, I've been an inspector at 3 regionals(WPI, Boston, and CT) and the inspection checklist has always included this line:

Controller – 1 cRIO must be used on the robot and it must be the only device connected to the 37-pin Digital Sidecar ports and the 25-pin ports on the Solenoid and Analog Breakout(s) used on the robot <R56>

The way I read that is that you can't use more than 1(even if cost wasn't an issue). So as an inspector, without seeing an update or Q&A post specifically allowing it, I would say no to that idea.

-Eric

[M.Wong]

It would not be worth the added power. The cRio has so much power, most teams do not get anywhere near fully utilizing the cRio. Plus, using two cRios would be extremely restrictive on the rest of your robot (cost wise).

[theprgramerdude]

Originally Posted by M.Wong

It would not be worth the added power. The cRio has so much power, most teams do not get anywhere near fully utilizing the cRio. Plus, using two cRios would be extremely restrictive on the rest of your robot (cost wise).

Baha, image detection algorithms push the Crio to its limits as is. Anything more advanced is simply impossible.
Right now, I notice the severe lag from doing two or more circle detections per cycle, and this only adds up to about 10-15 times per second.
Does anyone think asking FIRST to ease this restriction concerning BIOS batteries for next year would be option?

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

Baha, image detection algorithms push the Crio to its limits as is. Anything more advanced is simply impossible.
Right now, I notice the severe lag from doing two or more circle detections per cycle, and this only adds up to about 10-15 times per second.
Does anyone think asking FIRST to ease this restriction concerning BIOS batteries for next year would be option?

They don't have to know what they don't know... Just enclose it in a regular pc case


edit: Or even more bad $@#$@#$@#, use 1 or more ps3's on board, they are like $300 each, so its legal. Just use a enternet hub and boot up linux on it... BAD $@#$@#$@#!!

[theprgramerdude]

That's a very neat idea, but really, the Cell is just a CPU on steroids. And thus, it's a CPU which can't compare to a GPU's performance, even though it's easier to code. It's like trying to compare anything to infinity.

Unfortunately, a PC case would probably be a big weight and shock-resistance hassle. These components already have to withstand huge Gforce shocks, even with bumpers. Kudos for the idea, though. That'd be interesting, seeing my neon-blue case on a robot.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

That's a very neat idea, but really, the Cell is just a CPU on steroids. And thus, it's a CPU which can't compare to a GPU's performance, even though it's easier to code. It's like trying to compare anything to infinity.

Unfortunately, a PC case would probably be a big weight and shock-resistance hassle. These components already have to withstand huge Gforce shocks, even with bumpers. Kudos for the idea, though. That'd be interesting, seeing my neon-blue case on a robot.

Actually coded right, the Cell processor is way more useful than the PS3 RSX (the gpu), it was the only way that Uncharted 2 looked so good, they took some of the GPU work to the cell

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/po...pa-linuxps3-1/

[M.Wong]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

edit: Or even more bad $@#$@#$@#, use 1 or more ps3's on board, they are like $300 each, so its legal. Just use a enternet hub and boot up linux on it... BAD $@#$@#$@#!!

Don't update your Ps3 then. Linux support just got dropped.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by M.Wong

Don't update your Ps3 then. Linux support just got dropped.

Im aware, gah no PSN for me now

[Robototes2412]

Oh my goodness! I forgot the fact that the cRIO has a serial port that can be used to do this stuff. If you use an absurdly high baud rate (with a heavy dose of custom code, of course) and hook up a crio to, say, an arduino over serial (hook up the tx and rx to digital ports 0 and 1), you could have a co-processor work. I'm going to experiment with this and i will keep you posted.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Robototes2412

Oh my goodness! I forgot the fact that the cRIO has a serial port that can be used to do this stuff. If you use an absurdly high baud rate (with a heavy dose of custom code, of course) and hook up a crio to, say, an arduino over serial (hook up the tx and rx to digital ports 0 and 1), you could have a co-processor work. I'm going to experiment with this and i will keep you posted.

The max for arduino is 9600 baud rate

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

The max for arduino is 9600 baud rate

No it isn't. http://www.arduino.cc/en/Serial/Begin I've run mine at 115200 and it works fine.

[theprgramerdude]

Isn't that still a seriously low level of bandwidth?

I guess knowing what you are passing back and forth, it might only have to come down to raw, simple data that gets proccessed, and the results are passed back just as simply, but still...

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

No it isn't. http://www.arduino.cc/en/Serial/Begin I've run mine at 115200 and it works fine.

LULZ I was looking at http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/SoftwareSerial

[biojae]

If you are seriously considering an arduino, then why don't you use one of the ethernet shields?

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17_21&produ cts_id=83
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=9026

that would leave the serial port on the cRio open, and dwould allow a network switch to combine several on the robot.

The sparkfun shield communicates over SPI, which theoretically has a higher bandwidth then the serial comms that it is replacing

[MattD]

At minimum, I'd imagine this would violate <R22>. I'm not aware of any other rule that would specifically prohibit this, but I'm also not aware of any reason to use more than one cRIO on one robot.