Well, it seems like my last post generated some interest, so here is another…
I have produced a series of videos which demonstrate the use of the “bus pirate” to integration test hardware without needing a roboRio.
In them, I describe building a WPILib device driver for a TCS34725 color sensor, what the bus pirate is and how it works, reading a data sheet, and how to compose an integration test to swap out calls from the WPI I2C class and redirect them to the bus pirate using Mockito and JUnit.
You might find these techniques useful when developing a testing strategy for your next bot. In theory, you could test whole subsystems on the bench, without a roboRio.
In a future set of videos, I will cover how one might go about integration testing CAN bus devices using the bus pirate. The bus pirate does not have a CAN port, but you can’t stop pirates!
Color sensor code: https://github.com/Team997Coders/TCS34725I2CRoboRio
Bus pirate/TCS34725 integration test video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI00KlgCa8U
Video series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OLl2fDLpoY&list=PL-u0oNZBsNMb6EO756PL7u6dJfyHllIX8
Chuck Benedict
Mentor
Spartan Robotics
Team 997