Too long has the FRC electronics system been a headache of inconclusive Google searches. Code Orange saw the need for a quality electronics tutorial series and is now ready to reveal its work.
One of our students has been hard at work making tutorial videos, aiming to make electronics easier for all teams (especially rookies). We hope we can help every team make electronics into a joy rather than a pain. So far we have 56 minutes of material that is expanding every day. (Code Orange is working on a Power Distribution Board video at this very moment)
As of this writing, we have videos about the tools we use and where to buy them, explanation of a couple electronics terms, what each part does, and some how-tos. Once the rules are released we will continue making videos explaining the assembly of the kit bot electronics system from start to finish, including radio setup, camera setup, and other software setup. We suggest you show this series to your electronics and programing sub-teams.
We have taken the time to add closed captioning to (at this point most of) the videos, in expectation that they will need to be watched in high-noise environments on tinny netbook speakers.
Please distribute this link to anyone who could use this information:
*I’ve been watching your videos. You’ve done an excellent job. I especially appreciate your effort to speak clearly. I think this will be quite useful for rookie teams, and for rookies on established teams.
So far I’ve caught only a few areas you might want to clarify or correct. When I get a chance I will PM you with my notes.
Thank you for spending the time to watch my videos! I strive to be as accurate as possible, so I will try to correct anything that you can find. CD won’t let me give you more rep.
Nice Idea, and im sure all those rookies will be thankful for you shedding some light on how a control system really works in a easy to understand, concise way.
Youve inspired me to do a tutorial on CAN (Our team loves CAN) and all of its pros and cons. CAN actually gave us the most innvoative feature on our robot I’ll say. Thanks!
What can you do with CAN that you can’t already do?
What language do you use? Are the C++ and Java implementations synchronous like the LV one, and if so, have you rewritten them so they work reliably?
How do you deal with failure?
These questions are important when thinking about CAN. There is a single point of failure, and the current libraries (at least in LV) do not handle failure gracefully at all. The cRio should be able to keep up with fast control loops. CAN also requires the Jaguars, which are physically the largest and less historically reliable season-tested controllers of recent history.
There are ups and downs. It’s not all flowers and unicorns, and it’s not a magic bullet like some people seem to embrace it as.
Your videos are terrific! While this is technically our team’s third year, all the members of our electronics sub-team are rookies. These will be very helpful.
Thanks!
Ann
I believe that is all built into the infrastructure. In other words, you add the jumper to the Analaog breakout and the battery voltage will appear on the Driver Station.
