So our team has been looking for a better way to improve our programming and ability to test our robots quickly. We are generally able to get the job done, but not without leaving at least 2-3 weeks time to do it using Labview. We noticed that the Robot in 3 Days project used a crosstheroadelectronics product known as the CANipede (http://crosstheroadelectronics.com/RCM.html) for quick and simple programming, as shown in their reveal video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfyzbV6k02A
So my question is has your team had any experience with the crosstheroadelectronics products? Is there a way you test your whole robot quickly once it is all built? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Your Labview code should be done fairly early on. Logical debugging can be done without the robot. VI s can be executed by themselves. They don’t have to be in a robot project. Verify that a given input produces the expected output. The only debugging that really had to wait until the build is complete is pid tuning, and anything that use s timing in your code… elements that use timing should be avoided at all costs.
Cross the road products have been superb for us.
We always have a vi that allows us to quickly test each motor individually for direction. We also try to make our electrical board a drop in board that goes on once the majority of the robot is done. That way we actually use the board to verify the wiring to all the components well before it’s on the robot.