Logging - WPI DataLogManger vs CTRE Singal Logging

Technical
1

Hi All!

I’ve been trying to figure out good logging practices for the upcoming season. After playing around with the 2025 Beta, I’m not sure what would be optimal for logging our robot’s data.

Does it make more sense to:

  • Run CTRE Signal Logging and DataLogManger together, then load both files into a visualizer (Advantage Scope?) together
  • Take Values needed from CTRE devices using appropriate getter methods and log them with DataLog? Leaving me with only a single WPI Data file to analyze?
  • Take what’s needed from non-CTRE, then use custom Signal writing, leaving me with only a single Hoot file to analyze?

I could also be thinking about this completely wrong lol - would love some input and suggestions!

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Do the first option.

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Thanks! Any specific reason why?

I like the new annotation based logging which was admittedly the only reason I didn’t want to rule out DataLogManager.

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It keeps both in the ecosystem they are most suited for. And the whole concept of having a log analysis tool is that you can merge data from multiple sources.

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In addition to annotation logging, most of the WPILib solutions support the modern struct format for complex types (e.g. poses). This prevents all kinds of errors like mixing up units, and is what we universally recommend to teams. Hoot logging still requires using a legacy format for those types, which is far more error prone (and is currently deprecated in AdvantageScope for that reason).

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That makes a lot of sense!

Wouldn’t it just make sense to put everything in Datalogger then?

Our odometery runs on its own thread which I assume would be 200hz over the native 50hz on the rio. Would that effect anything or am I not understanding this correctly?

7

It would, except that CTRE doesn’t support anything other than Hoot for their automatic logging (so you would need to record the values manually). Hoot files are also compressed to reduce file size, though WPILib is looking to implement something similar in the future.

AdvantageScope is designed to easily merge multiple log files, which makes using both solutions together quite practical.

You can log data at any frequency to WPILOG, but it needs to be done manually. The advantage of CTRE’s logger is that high-frequency data is recorded automatically.

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