Posted by Innovation First, Inc.
Engineer on team #883 from Texas.
Posted on 12/14/99 7:33 PM MST
You can see a sneak peek of our beta Dashboard Viewer on our web site. Go to www.innovationfirst.com and follow the link.
The Dashboard connector on the Operator Interface is a transmit only RS-232 port. You can connect it directly to a PC via a 9-pin cable.
The current version was written in Visual Basic and requires a 233MHz Pentium. To make it work on slower PCs, we are trying to rewrite it in C before the competition begins (no promises). And yes . . . it will be free.
If you have any suggestions or comments, speak now. E-mail them to [email protected].
Posted by Andy Grady. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Coach on team #42, P.A.R.T.S, from Alvirne High School and Daniel Webster College.
Posted on 12/14/99 10:31 PM MST
In Reply to: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/14/99 7:33 PM MST:
I GOTTA GET ME ONE OF THOSE!!! 
Just one more reason to loose sleep before kit day.
Good Luck,
Andy Grady, DWC/Alvirne
Posted by Justin.
Other on team Blue Lightning Alum from RWU sponsored by FIRST-A-holics Anonymous.
Posted on 12/15/99 9:40 AM MST
In Reply to: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/14/99 7:33 PM MST:
Ya but will they be releasing the source code to the dashboard program?? That would rock in so many ways it isn’t funny. Especially if it is kept in VB because VB is such an easy language to work with. If they do that I envision things like talking robots, all kinds of good stuff…dam it why did I have to graduate last year!!!
-Justin
Posted by Nate Smith.
Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Ypsilanti HS/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.
Posted on 12/15/99 10:22 AM MST
In Reply to: Re: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Justin on 12/15/99 9:40 AM MST:
First off, let me just say that it looks AWESOME!! But the question still remains, will it be allowed on the field? Also, I would LOVE to get my hands on the source code for this one…I like the idea that they kept the display looking like the light panels on the controller boxes, but can you imagine if we could design own own display? I think i know what my project for this week is…design an alternate UI for this just in case we do get the source…
Posted by Justin.
Other on team Blue Lightning Alum from RWU sponsored by FIRST-A-holics Anonymous.
Posted on 12/15/99 10:07 PM MST
In Reply to: Source code, PLEASE!!! posted by Nate Smith on 12/15/99 10:22 AM MST:
Nate,
I hear you on that one. There are so many possiblities for a UI for this thing well my head still hasn’t stopped coming up w/them. Course once I got over the excitiment of a different display I then pondered the fact that it is also not that much of a stretch to integrate sound. Hmm…I picked the wrong year (last) to graduate from FIRST that is for sure.
-Justin
Posted by Nate Smith.
Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Ypsilanti HS/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.
Posted on 12/16/99 4:13 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Source code, PLEASE!!! posted by Justin on 12/15/99 10:07 PM MST:
To Justin and everybody else who’s interested…
I contacted Innovation FIRST at the e-mail address given on the dashboard page regarding availability of the source code. I’ll let everybody know what I find out…
Posted by Justin.
Other on team Blue Lightning Alum from RWU sponsored by FIRST-A-holics Anonymous.
Posted on 12/16/99 6:59 PM MST
In Reply to: Innovation FIRST Contacted, Waiting for Reply posted by Nate Smith on 12/16/99 4:13 PM MST:
Hello All,
I e-mailed Innovation FIRST and recieved a reply from Tony. He said that they aren’t sure if they are going to release the code but they are ‘currently leaning towards no.’ I think this would be unfortunate as I can envision lots of fun things to do with the code
So all u VB coders write Innovation FIRST and tell them we’d like the code
-Justin
Posted by Innovation First, Inc.
Engineer on team #883 from Texas.
Posted on 12/16/99 9:17 PM MST
In Reply to: Innovation FIRST Contacted, Have a reply. posted by Justin on 12/16/99 6:59 PM MST:
We currently plan to publish the data format for the Dashboard port after kick-off. This will allow teams to roll their own viewer. Sorry, no time for documentation now. The Dashboard port provides a simple serial data stream (no hand shake). Basically it is the raw data being received by the Operator Interface modem.
Our Dashboard Viewer was written for our testing purposes, and it has been scaled back and cleaned up for teams. We do not plan to support this free software or release the source code.
The viewer we provide is just a head start for some, and it will even the playing field for those who do not have the resources. FIRST will be making the final decision if it will be allowed during competition matches, not us. We are just a small company who was crazy enough to sign up to this ridiculous schedule. We started in mid July.
Good Luck!
Posted by Lora Knepper.
Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.
Posted on 12/17/99 3:14 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Innovation FIRST Contacted, Have a reply. posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/16/99 9:17 PM MST:
You guys STARTED in mid-July? Don’t you know FIRST never ends! The system looks great…can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Lora Knepper
Team 69 HYPER
Posted by Nate Smith.
Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Ypsilanti HS/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.
Posted on 12/19/99 7:32 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Innovation FIRST Contacted, Have a reply. posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/16/99 9:17 PM MST:
Posted by Dave. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW.
Posted on 12/15/99 3:19 PM MST
In Reply to: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/14/99 7:33 PM MST:
Hey,
Does anybody know if we could record all the sensor readings for the match using this?
Dave
: You can see a sneak peek of our beta Dashboard Viewer on our web site. Go to www.innovationfirst.com and follow the link.
: The Dashboard connector on the Operator Interface is a transmit only RS-232 port. You can connect it directly to a PC via a 9-pin cable.
: The current version was written in Visual Basic and requires a 233MHz Pentium. To make it work on slower PCs, we are trying to rewrite it in C before the competition begins (no promises). And yes . . . it will be free.
: If you have any suggestions or comments, speak now. E-mail them to [email protected].
Posted by Joe Johnson. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 12/15/99 4:23 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Dave on 12/15/99 3:19 PM MST:
I don’t know anything about the sensors, but I suspect that they have increased the number and resolution of the analog in channels just as they doubled the number of PWM outputs.
If this is true, then I think that the CPU will spend too much time sending data to receive all the data from the joysticks etc.
If there are 16 8 bit sensors, that would mean 256 bits of info without the start & stop bits. With a loop time of about 20 milliseconds that would mean about 10000 bits per second of data just from the sensors alone.
Even at 19.2Kbaud, this is a fairly high percentage of time spent just sending data.
I would guess that some subset of data is sent back to the dashboard. How this is done is anybodies guess.
Joe J.
Posted by Jerry Eckert.
Engineer from Looking for a team in Raleigh, NC sponsored by New England Prototype/Brooks Automation.
Posted on 12/15/99 8:55 PM MST
In Reply to: Bandwidth must be limited posted by Joe Johnson on 12/15/99 4:23 PM MST:
: I don’t know anything about the sensors, but I suspect that they have increased the number and resolution of the analog in channels just as they doubled the number of PWM outputs.
: If this is true, then I think that the CPU will spend too much time sending data to receive all the data from the joysticks etc.
: If there are 16 8 bit sensors, that would mean 256 bits of info without the start & stop bits. With a loop time of about 20 milliseconds that would mean about 10000 bits per second of data just from the sensors alone.
: Even at 19.2Kbaud, this is a fairly high percentage of time spent just sending data.
Good points, Joe. And thanks for saving me the typing!
For the past two competitions I implemented something similar to the dashboard (sans the fancy graphics) using the debug port on the receiver. In the first implementation of this debug mode I drove the output channels and wrote the data to the debug port. I soon discovered it didn’t take much debug output to cause the control response to become noticably sluggish. It didn’t require much more to cause the outputs to be disabled by the sanity timers. I finally ended up bypassing the device outputs when debug mode was enabled.
Jerry
Posted by Lora Knepper.
Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.
Posted on 12/15/99 3:26 PM MST
In Reply to: Innovation First DASHBOARD Picture posted by Innovation First, Inc on 12/14/99 7:33 PM MST:
That is sweet! Innovation First, you guys rock! Can’t wait for the building to begin!!!
Good luck all,
Lora
team 69 HYPER