My team did not opt to receive the control system early, so I do not have the camera or the cRIO, so sorry if this is addressed already (or is unnecessary).
I have seen a post or two about out of focus camera images, and see that there are sub VIs for setting sharpness, exposure, and brightness.
How would you go about auto-focusing the camera on startup in autonomous mode?
EDIT: Never mind, after doing more searching I found the answer. For those who are curious- The camera has built in auto-exposure, but does not support any kind of auto-focusing. You must use the ring aroung the lens.
What my teams have done in the past with the CMUCam is to make a “witness mark” with a paint pen across the lens assembly once we have the camera in focus. That way, if the lens gets accidentally rotated again, we can roughly refocus it by re-aligning the witness mark line without the need to hook the camera up to a computer. This is particularly useful with the quick turn-around times between matches!
One other suggestion to do in addition to the witness mark it to put a small spot of silicon glue or hot glue at a point bridging the edge of the focus ring and the camera housing. This will prevent accidental movement of the ring. It also allows changing the focus later if desired. DO NOT USE SUPER GLUE or EPOXY!!