I just received an email from National Instruments about their new CAN interface for the Compact RIO system, the NI-9862 module.
You can read about it here.
Now, I’m not sure how likely the NI-9862 will be coming to the FIRST control system, but it’s promising.
It would be great to get rid of the funky conversion stuff we’re doing right now. Having this module will take out some complexity in the system.
Very cool to hear this…
When I was in St. Louis at NI’s booth, I asked them about providing a native CAN module for FRC in the future. We can only hope. I for one hope so.
I also asked them about a breakout bumper similar to the one’s used on the Analog and Solenoid modules for the main Digital Module such that the Digital Side Car could be eliminated completely or at least have a choice to use it or not.
The thought here was if teams move to CAN instead of PWM, then they only really need digital ports so why the entire side car. Simply provide a bumper with digital pins, a light signal pin, 1 relay pin for the compressor, and a small number of PWM’s for servos.
CAN is a very intelligently designed and robust comm protocol when implemented properly. Given NI’s reputation for doing things right, I agree this would be a great addition.
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NI has had CAN cRIO modules in the past. http://sine.ni.com/np/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/icomm/lang/en/pg/1/sn/n17:icomm,n21:17,n24:cRIO/
When I asked about it several years ago, NI said one of the issues was the size of the FPGA in our cRIO. Phalanx, what was their response to your question?
Joe,
The NI folks told me that they liked the idea, thought it would be a good addition, that it might be possible, and would look into it, but couldn’t be sure if “cost” of the module wasn’t going to be an issue.