Field Electronics

[Racer26]

It seems to me that the bulk of what is needed to build a generic (not game-specific) field is some basic networking equipment, a high-end wifi router, 8x 4 digit led displays (3 teams, plus an arena timer per alliance station), and some packet sniffing done between the DS and FMSLight to determine how the communications packets enable/disable/autonomous the robots, followed by some custom software to emulate FMS.

[Johnny_5]

To everyone who said it was a secret-

I sent an email a few weeks ago to someone I had known at Rockwell Automation. And then just last week I received a forward notice that my contact had forwarded this message to the Rockwell Automation group that deals directly with FIRST.

Today I got an email from the RA FIRST department with a gif image attached with the layout and basic wiring diagram with how things are hooked together plus a model number and component name for all of the AB components used for the basic scoring system of the field

[dez250]

I hope you were not representing yourself as someone who had received authorization from the proper channels at FIRST to receive these documents. As for recreating a field completely from photos, instruction manuals, and a list of hardware components you still are biting off a task larger than you are thinking it is. The software that runs the multiple PLC units and firmware on the router are custom and not just regular pieces of software that is available off the web.

I would suggest you take some time and do some research into the old NASA Field that was run by Mike Wade before he passed away. Mike had the desire to have a field that he could truck around the east coast and Mid-Atlantic region of the US to host off season events and pre-ship scrimmages. After researching and working with a real FIRST field he decided it was more work to reinvent the wheel exactly as it was and came up with his own version of the field that did what he needed with a bunch of toggle switches. Albeit this was in the IFI days when dongles were able to be used with the OI's, the same could be done today.

I would suggest running with what has previously suggested, and if you really need a field for more than just some here and there practice, to use a couple switches, routers, a bunch of ethernet cables, and FMS Lite. The stress and cost you will encounter while trying to recreate a FIRST field, will be more than that to rent one if you try to have everything there that is exact as the FIRST fields have.

[Johnny_5]

No, I was not representing anyone but my team when I contacted RA. I have no idea what the proper channels are to gain access to this sort of information. Plus trying to get information like that is not in the spirit of FIRST, if someone were to come and tell me "Your not supposed to have this informationThe PLC unit uses a program developed by RA engineers. The Cisco AP is being used for its exact purpose on the field, and so are the IO units. So the only piece of software I am missing yet it the PLC program.

I have looked into the Mike Wade field, it really looks interesting. But it seems that it would not be very different than our plans. And again all we are doing right now is planning. We are trying to get a feel about how hard this will be. We are trying to tackle all of the hard parts first, the biggest being the electronics to determine if its even possible to do what we want to do.

[Mike o.]

Originally Posted by Johnny_5

To everyone who said it was a secret-

I sent an email a few weeks ago to someone I had known at Rockwell Automation. And then just last week I received a forward notice that my contact had forwarded this message to the Rockwell Automation group that deals directly with FIRST.

Today I got an email from the RA FIRST department with a gif image attached with the layout and basic wiring diagram with how things are hooked together plus a model number and component name for all of the AB components used for the basic scoring system of the field

Would you mind sharing this information with the rest of us on this thread?