Does the fms send a color to 6 robots?

Does this mean all 6 robots get a color at once (possibly a different color per alliance) when one alliance reaches stage 3. Or that only the 3 on that alliance do and the other alliance waits for their stage 3?

And if the former, what happens when the later alliances rotates if it ends on that color? Rotate and choose color happen together?

POSITION CONTROL: Rotate CONTROL PANEL so a specified color aligns with the sensor for at least five (5) seconds. Once either ALLIANCE reaches Stage 3 CAPACITY, FMS relays a specified color (randomly selected by FMS and one (1) of the three (3) colors not currently read by the ALLIANCE’S TRENCH color sensor) to all OPERATOR CONSOLES simultaneously. The specified color may not be the same for both ALLIANCES. See Table 3-4 for details on how the TRENCH light is used during POSTION CONTROL.

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All robots get a color at the same time. This happens when the first alliance finishes rotation control. The second alliance might end up automatically getting the right color but they won’t get credit until they put another 20 cells in.

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Thank you. Wanted to make sure i understood that!

Look to me that once anyone reaches Stage 3, all teams will receive the color that they need to do Stage 3 regardless of the stage their at.
For the second part, it sounds to me that if it happens to be on the same color, then yeah that requirement for the stages would be completed but you still need to score the 40 power cells for Stage plus 2&3.

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A source to confirm all 6 teams receive the data at once

Color assignment data is sent to both alliances simultaneously once the first alliance in a match has reached Capacity on Stage 3 of the Shield Generator (see the Game Manual for more complete details). Between the beginning of the match and this point, the Game Data will be an empty string.

https://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/software/wpilib-overview/2020-Game-Data.html

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(randomly selected by FMS and one (1) of the three (3) colors not currently read
by the ALLIANCE’S TRENCH color sensor) to all OPERATOR CONSOLES simultaneously. The
specified color may not be the same for both ALLIANCES

It is not possible to automatically be on the correct color when it is sent

‘To all operator consoles’

Driver Station laptop? How do drivers see it?

Correct. But if the “slower” alliance hasn’t completed the rotations yet, it might just be that the selected color is under the sensor when the rotations are done. And if the rotations are taking place when the “faster” alliance needs the color to match, I wonder what happens?

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The program reads it. The program can send it to the driver station. Or process directly with a color sensor

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Also, to be pedantic, FMS only communicates with the driver station (it does not communicate directly to the robot). The DS will forward the value to the robot program once it’s received

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This is where i dont understand- maybe none of us will until the match starts. What do the drivers see on the DS after the FMS sends it? Is there a pop up or blinking lights of the color?

From: http://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/software/driverstation/driver-station.html

Game Data - This box can be used for at home testing of the Game Data API. Text entered into this box will appear in the Game Data API on the Robot Side. When connected to FMS, this data will be populated by the field automatically.

Note that your programmers will probably want to do something to make the value more obvious, unless you want your driver squinting at a little text box in the middle of the match.

Given that both ALLIANCES get their colour from FMS once the first ALLIANCE reaches Stage 3 CAPACITY, if you have not yet completed Stage 2 when this happens it would be a very good thing to set the COLOUR to the required value, as soon as you complete Stage 2. This potentially saves you a trip back to do it.

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