We have a veteran team with all rookies on it and none of our mentors or students have knowledge about coding, we have reached out in forums and our area and not having any luck, we did have a mentor who was going to help but he has not shown up. We are 20 min west of Flint MI. Any suggestions??
Do you have a preferred language? What exactly do you need help with?
I hope your team can find someone local to aid you. However, just to make sure bases are covered: The Screen Steps Live website, https://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/currentCS, has pretty much all the necessary resources to get someone dedicated enough to read through it going in any of the three supported languages. If you can get one or two members who are genuinely interested in programming, this should be able to kick-start them, provided they can get over the usual HS Student hump of thinking programming is intrinsically super difficult to learn or do.
If y’all are specifically looking to use Java (or C++ to a lesser extent), I also have a small Resource Compendium document I maintain for my team of links to good information on programming including books, guides, and videos. Much of which was created by other teams. Feel free to take a look: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jcBLAyJ3iTbsYSnWMVWqHaK8uywGTaTjF98eY_xxpl0/edit#heading=h.ugucixr1zz6v
Good Luck!
Definitely try to find a local resource for help (there are a TON of MI teams, so I’m sure one could spare someone to lend a hand). Definitely make sure you (or whoever may be interested) take a look at the screenstepslive documentation linked by @ExploitSage. If all else fails, definitely check out https://www.thecompassalliance.org/ for remote help. Feel free to check it out whether you find a local resource or not.
That said, I’m a ~6 hour drive east of you (western NY), and could probably be convinced to make the drive for a weekend to help you guys out. Again, a local resource is obviously the best option here.
2 Likes
Java, Help with basics on up, the mentor we had I’m guessing it was to much for him…
Thank you for the links, I have been on the wpilib and read though some it is very helpful, I have forwarded to the 3 students that are wanting to learn, but they are starting from the bottom.
Here is a basic introduction to Java that I am in the process of writing for our team here, should help out just a little on the Java side:
Here is a really nice resource on FRC programming in general:
https://frc-pdr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Once you have some basics understood, here is a really good writeup on how command based robots work in FRC:
http://team2363.org/2016/11/command-based-java-for-frc/
2 Likes
We use this repo for training incoming freshman. It will get you up to speed on making the robot drives. It covers the basics of making a function and calling that function within a command. As others have said, I recommend ScreenSteps. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask 
2 Likes
what are you having a hard time with. do you have your robot driving? Are you using command based or timed.
not driving yet our mentor had are last year bot driving, but hasn’t shown up to help. so I am just starting to research everything. we are way behind
I would contact your RD - they should be able to find a team who can help y’all out on the programming front.
From the FIRST website, it looks like Gail Alpert is your RD. You can email them at
gail[dot]alpert[at]gmail[dot]com
1 Like