Hello,
I was wondering if there was a program out there that could use a computer interface to control a 2008 robot’s vecs and relays to test connections. I know easy c had one of these programs called on-line window. Are there any others?
Thanks in advanced,
~David E
Since the IFI Robot Controller is pretty much a custom design, you have to use software that’s designed to interface with it. That leaves you with a choice of EasyC, making your own program to interface with the serial port in MPLAB, or using the ROBOTC product that was released this year (I’m not sure if there’s any premade solutions like EasyC or if you would still have to make your own). If you want to pursue creating your own control over serial console, take a look at Kevin Watson’s camera code from 2007 (get the “bells and whistles” version); it has a demonstration of a simple menu-based console.
–Ryan
You might find it interesting to get in touch with the people working on this project at the VEX forum.
The VEX and FRC robot controllers are quite similar and it sounds like you both have similar goals in mind.
Jason
Also, I am not 100% sure, and I cant check right now, but there is an option in IFI loader that lets you check registers and such, I also recall seeing an option letting me move PWMs around… Can’t recall where. Check around in IFI loader.
The above may be VERY wrong, I just had a glance at something while i was trying to solve a problem. No promises.
Hello, I am the one who Reverse Engineered the Vex On-Line Code for EasyC 2.x, mainly because more users of Vex seem to have Version 2.x, but also because the Vex version of the On-Line Code for EasyC Pro seems broken (see Post 23).
Have you tried the FRC On-Line Code and On-Line Window in EasyC Pro (v3.0)??
I don’t have access to the FRC Controller right now, but you might load up the FRC On-Line Code and On-Line Window in EasyC Pro and see what Inputs and Outputs do what.
Better yet would be get a LOG of the Data coming from the FRC Robot Controller. You can do that by making a “Serial Port Sniffer”, or to load the FRC On-Line Code and On-Line Window in EasyC Pro, get it it communicating, then Use the Task Manager to kill the EasyC On-Line Window and Load a Serial Terminal Program, with settings at 115200, 8N1. Don’t close the On-Line Window with the “Close” Button or the Exit, because it will send the Stop Command to the FRC Controller (I assume this because it does to the Vex Controller).
I can easily merge the changes I made to the Vex Default Code to the FRC Default Code and change it to the EasyC Pro style messages, but I don’t know if the Data Format is correct.
Thanks for the “plug”. Communication between Computer Devices is an area that really interests me, that is what I do at my Day Job, and I find it a most interesting area of Computer Science.
I put a “call out” to the people that were interested in making a PC Program to control the Vex(and FRC) robot (see Does anyone have a PC program to work with the Vex On-Line Code?).
With Source Code for the Vex (and FRC) Controller and the PC, just about anything can be accomplished.
Windows seems to main platform of interest, but I have talked with Mac Users interested in developing a Control Program as well.