Co-processor

Technical Programming
1

I’m looking at using a co-processor for next year…

Just wondering, can you use another FRC as a micro-controller? This package is very nice for OI, and it completely compatible with the whole electrical system. Or is this violating the rules somehow?

Thanks,
Jacob

2

In both the 2007 & 2006 rules the FRC was not legal due to it being over the maximum allowable price for a single part. However, the Vex controller, which is quite similar, is legal.

3

Yeah… This sounds good. Or the EDU-Bot controller? Thats only like 250, right?

And as far as price for single part… what if you bought it on ebay for 200? Although I think that the rule states retail price :(… The FRC is so nice though…

Anyway, thanks for the thought. This will definately be on my bot next year to handle all my IO…

EDIT:… Just thinking… The EDU-Bot controller has TTL on it… Could you use this to interface with the FRC using the TTL chip onboard?

Jacob

4

If you want to get your hands dirty, so to speak, a great place to start would be a PIC 16F877 kit offered by Machine Science, a new FIRST supplier. It will give you six 10-bit analog channels and a bunch of digital IO. The chip itself is only $10, so you could have multiple co-processors for different modules. It would be feasible, for example, to have a dedicated processor for handling high-resolution encoder interrupts and then reporting to the FRC. Their online IDE and programmer (free for FIRST teams) make it very easy to work with and it can communicate with the FRC via USART (the TTL or programming port).

www.machinescience.org/firstoffer.html

5

I am sure you can use the ttl but most teams prefer to use that for the camera. You can use the programming port.

However If you are going to go through the trouble of getting a co-processor working atleast make it worth while, a vex controller really doesn’t give you much of an advantage, I would look into better systems (gumstix for example.)

6

This stuff looks sweet. Thanks.

I’ve used PICs before, just haven’t interfaced them together into a system. This should be fun to try out.

Again, thanks for the info,
Jacob