[DFTF] Required Reading

FIRST General Forum
#1

This is part of a series of posts called Drinking From The Firehose on getting Dr Joe back up to speed on All Things FIRST.

Links, send me your links.

The first thing I am going to say is that I know enough about FIRST to know that I have to RT-M*

Okey dokey. BUT WHICH MANUALS?!?! There are so many sources of information, blogs, guides, how to’s, etc.

I am going to start here at the 2011 FRC Kit of Parts website but even this list is 40 or so documents. Which ones are the critical ones?

The 2011 Competition Manual and Related Documents is another blizzard of documents swirling around.

I am sure there are others to read as well.

Then there are How to, blogs and forums and e-mails and updates and…

Here is what I am asking for.

Help me come up with a list of stuff I have to read NOW (before our first team meeting), stuff I need to read soon (say before Halloween), stuff to read before the kickoff.

THEN… …I need to know what I need to do to keep up with things. Which forums on CD are must reads? Bill’s Blog is obviously essential. But what else?

Do your best to break it down for me. I am getting old.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Joe J.

*I’m the kind of guy who swears from time to time, but I try not to. I don’t even like to type the F in WT-. I’m not a prude, I just think that few conversations are improved by dropping f bombs into the mix.

#2

A rookie again after all these years…

Sorry Joe…I hate to burst your bubble but you will NEVER be a rookie in my book…

Welcome back?

#3

The 2011 Competition Manual needs to be read. However, it’s been split into two parts: Administrative and Game. Read the Administrative portion yesterday; it’s the part least likely to change (shipping, Bag and Tag, registrations, contacts–all that sort of thing). Read the Game portion later; you’ll want to pay special attention to the bumper rules in the Robot section.

For the KOP list, start with the control system documents.

CD forums and threads–there are quite a few; JVN’s blog is linked a few times. (Another of the “read these” items, though not as critical as official communication channels.) Some items to search for include (no particular order): Concert at Championships, ABC special (which involved said concert), Wings of Fire.

#4

Concert at Championships, ABC special (which involved said concert)

Really? That’s what someone getting back into FIRST should look into?

#5

Read the context, Don. It’s something that should be looked up on the forum, primarily because there’s a significant chance (in my mind, at least) it’ll return and partly because it’s something that someone who’s been out of the loop for a while would want to know–the message of FIRST is getting out.

However, it’s not something that is necessarily a high priority.

#6

First off, welcome back… We know this isn’t your first rodeo and you should be up to speed rather quickly.

You will notice that this forum has become a minefield and requires careful searching and a lot of reading to avoid useless information, and quite honestly people have become harsh in thier responses to various things. Some people just post to post.

Aside for the previous competition manuals there has been alot of useful information sharing recently. Teams are posting their designs (full CAD models), scouting programs, build season journals, and even spreadsheet calculators to make our lives easier. Spend some time looking through the whitepapers hosted on the site.

Below are some of the recent must reads…
Team 254’s Build Blog From 2011
Team 254’s Build Blog From 2010 Collaboration with 968
Team 33’s Build Journal from 2011
Team 148’s Build Journal from 2010
JVN’s Engineering Design Process in Competition Robotics

#7

Joe,
You can read section 3-The Game and 4-The Robot manual from 2011. You will find some inconsistencies but we are working on them for 2012. The documents are mostly what you are familiar with they have simply been broken into separate documents instead of sections in the same document. It sounds like you are going to be involved in all of the robot so I would suggest at this point to start reading up on the control system. There are a few quirks i.e. the placement of modules within the Crio frame, the interconnect to analog and digital sidecars and the use of the Power Distribution (PD) panel. Critical to this is the power supply for the Crio, radio, and camera, all of which are provided on the PD. New this past year is the addition of a regulator module for the radio. The PD was designed to have brownout protection for these critical power needs. 24 volts for the Crio, 5 volts for camera and 12 volts for the original radio/gaming adapter. The later version of the radio is 5 volts, hence the need for the external regulator module. These supplies provide power down to about 4.5 volts on the battery input. However, there is a requirement for a battery input to the analog module in slot one and a jumper is needed on the analog bumper (the small module that is fitted on top of the analog module). This critical connection supplies the battery voltage to an analog input. This allows the system to disable all control when and if the battery voltage falls to 5.5 volts. By doing so, the Crio and/or radio will not reboot during severe brownout. A Crio reboot is anywhere from 30 seconds or more depending on software and a radio reboot can be up to 50 seconds. This jumper also routes the battery voltage to the driver’s station and to the field management computers so that it may be displayed for drivers and for troubleshooting. Most of the electrical system you will remember from the past. The new speed controllers, Jaguars, operate similar to the Victors you know and love. Some teams continue to embrace the IFI product as being reliable and nearly bullet proof, while the Jaguar provides CAN bus interfacing, with the ability to do some fancy motor control, sensor wiring, and current feedback if the user chooses.

#8

I’m SO happy to see you coming back!!! The world of FIRST has missed you… Your Michigan friends (old teammates) miss you.

#9

Here is the site for National Instruments resources related to FRC.
https://decibel.ni.com/content/community/first/frc
This is lots of detail level technical content straight from the manufacturer.

A variety of wonderful Labview video tutorials can be found at http://www.frcmastery.com/
This are FRC examples of for working around common software issues as described from the team’s point of view. A bright student that understands logic can learn most of what they need to program a robot beyond the basic from these tutorials. An adult can possibly learn from this site too.

#10

Al,
You’re amazing and gracious. Thanks. I think I caught most of this but I am sure that I will have questions as I digest it. I will save it for a thread specifically on the new control system.

Others,
Any more reading tips?

I think the blogs will make a great project for a subset of the team to get through. I am thinking that it may be good to have my team leaders take this on, reporting back to me and the teacher on their findings.

I KNOW their is more to read. Dish.

Joe J.

#11

Joe,
Any of your students can ask me questions via email or PM or just openly on the forum if and when they become comfortable doing so.

#12