Hello. I just want to clarify one thing: during match does the driver control the start & end of autonomous mode from Driver Station, or FMS completely takes over by first enabling auto mode then enabling teleOp (along with audio cues)? I’d think it’s the latter but just want to confirm. Thanks!
It’s all ran by the FMS. When you connect the driver station to the field, the Enable/Disable buttons disappear and are replaced with “FMS Connected”.
Thank you, Dan! 
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One thing that surprised us our first year was that the during a match your robot will automatically go from autonomous for 15 seconds, to disabled for 1.5 seconds, to teleop for the rest of the match (the disabled part surprised us and required some code re-write). Use the Practice button to simulate an actual competition.
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Thanks for the tip, Tom!
Now it just occurred to me that, we actually have some parameters put on SmartDashboard that will be used by the auto code…will we be able to start the driver station, which will popup the dashboard, and enter / adjust the parameters, prior to FMS taking over? Should we connect the Ethernet cable to FMS AFTER we launch the driver station?
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You will connect the Ethernet cable to the FMS before the match starts, and you will have full access to your dashboard so you can enter / adjust your parameters before the students are asked to step back and the match starts.
And yes, you can have the driver station software and dashboard launched before you arrive, and then connect the ethernet cable when you get there.
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Get your robot on the field and turned on earliest.
Have your Driver Station already on and plug in the Player station Ethernet as soon as possible.
You’ll want the Laptop and robot communicating when you go to set your parameters and it has to do that through the field network.
I asked for clarification on how long the disabled period lasts. It is not currently in the manual and I believe it has varied in years past.
EDIT: Looks like the links to specific questions are broken on the Q&A so fixed the link
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That will be useful. I was thinking that we may want to leave our flywheel running because we are close on time. If the last cargo gets kicked in simultaneously with disable that is probably a miss.
Sounds great! Thanks!
Great tip. Just like the robot takes a bit to establish connection with radio over wifi, FMS needs a bit time to connect to our radio as well. Thanks!
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Speaking of radio, are we allowed to configure 2 radio units at the configuration kiosk upon checking in? Thought do one more as backup, since we have had issues with radio during match before…
Yes there is no restriction on this.
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One clarification - FMS controls when autonomous starts and when you transition to teleop, but this signal is still relayed through your driver station. You can’t manually control it, but the message passes through the DS software still. Minor technicality for most teams, but worth noting if you experience issues and are trying to troubleshoot.
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This. The FMS does not ever communicate directly with the robot. All FMS commands are passed to the DS. Only the DS directly communicates with the roborio
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So got a non-answer from the Q&A.
Looking at week 0 video and counting frames it looks to be 1 second +/- .1 seconds. That could change but
About doing more than one…
We always configure a second but because the lines can get really long early in the day, at least in our team’s opinion, the polite thing to do is just do one initially and then go back later when the lines are shorter to do the second or third.
Make sure not to do it when your robot is scheduled for a match…