Yesssssss!!! The 2020 season FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff at last!!! Just a few more days and all will be revealed!
Watch the Kickoff Saturday, January 4, here. At 10 AM Eastern Time, the pre-show starts. This will include some interesting content and give you a chance to make sure your system is up and running correctly. The main Kickoff broadcast starts at 10:30 AM ET and should end at about 11:15 AM ET or so. A short live Q&A with the game design team will follow to end about 12 PM ET(Noon). This is going to be some party!
And the party actually starts the day before, at Founder’s Reception. Tune in to our Twitch channel at 6:30 PM Eastern Time Friday, January 3 to check it out!
You want downloads? Of course. Who doesn’t want downloads? No one, that’s who.
Download encrypted files for the 2020 INFINITE RECHARGE season before Kickoff then unlock them with the code that will be revealed at the end of the main section of the kickoff. You can find the files you’ll be interested in listed below:
Documentation – For 2020, the official Control System documentation has moved from Screensteps to Read the Docs. It can now be found at https://docs.wpilib.org. Users can download a copy of the docs for offline use, as either PDF or HTML, using the Read the Docs menu at the bottom left of the page (Direct PDF link). A local version of the docs is also included in the WPILib C++\Java installer. Documentation for other KOP items will remain on Screensteps for 2020.
Control System Software – All core FRC Control System software (NI LabVIEW for FRC, NI FRC Game Tools, WPILib C++\Java, FRC Radio Programming Tool, and Classmate Images) has been posted and is available unencrypted for download and use. You can find a quick guide to what to grab for installation later here. Note that the WPILib C++\Java release is version 2020.1.2, teams that grabbed 2020.1.1 earlier this week should download and install this update.
New 2020 Season Merch
You want merch? You got merch. Check out the limited-edition INFINITE RECHARGESM and FIRST® RISESM, powered by Star Wars: Force for Change, merch from the FIRST Store.
Previous years’ original manual lengths courtesy of Mark.
2019 - 129
More interesting to me are the team drawings of the field elements
Half Field - 111pg - Up from 58pg in 2019
Minimal Field - 91pg - Up from 67pg in 2019
This is a HUGE increase. Deep Space was a bit repetitive in it’s builds, perhaps this indicates a more intricate field? Or perhaps more detailed drawings with more step by step breakdowns than in the past?
WPILib 2020 installs completely separately from 2019. It includes its own copy of VS Code and all dependencies. So if using the installer, you do need to install VS Code, it will not install into either a standalone copy or a 2019 copy.
The NI Downloads are just a web download, and will require internet to install. If you need an offline installer, under the download button you’ll see an Individual Offline Installers link, which will get you an offline install similar in size to previous years.
You shouldn’t need the whole LabView install if you’re a Java or C++ team. Likewise, you won’t need WPILib and VSCode if you’re a LabView team. No matter what, you’ll still need NI’s FRC Game Tools.
Absolutely no way it’s the second thing. I almost want to bet something on this in hopes that the karmic universe balances it out and allows it to happen.
@Aidan-Mundy, the new WPIlib really looks to be more powerful, and more easily comprehensible than previous years, esp. as concerns the CommandBased model. Yes, it’s a change, but when @oblarg asked for suggestions for improvements to CB, half of my suggestions were already there, and half of the others were incorporated.
I’m not sure what you are getting at with my post, lol. I was jokingly complaining that Machine Learning is a lot of work if it was needed for this year’s game (given the “more info later” comment and “later” potentially meaning on kickoff).
I didn’t mention 2020 Command Based, though I am very excited for it and I am actually seting a testbench up in my house right now to get working on converting our old robot code to the 2020CB before kickoff.
Perhaps you’re a little bit tired and jumpy in anticipation of kickoff?
