SmartDashboard extensions when launched from driver station

Technical Java
#1

I have a smartdashboard extension which I placed in the sunspotfrcsdk ools\extension folder. When I launch smartdashboard from the sunspotfrcsdk ools directory, my extension shows. However, when I launch smartdashboard from the driverstation java dashboard option, the extension does not show.

I was under the impression that the driver station launches the smartdashboard from the sunspotfrcsdk ools folder. Is there another place it looks for extensions?

Note: I’m not using the smartdashboard installer, since I’m not using the camera plugin. I’m using the brand new feature of launching the smartdashboard installed by the java plugins.

#2

SmartDashboard is launched through an .exe when running from the driverstation. My guess is that the exe does not look for libraries because it loads libraries from ClassLoader, which never works well when .jar files are made into .exe ones.

#3

The Java button on the DS executes PATH/sunspotfrcsdk ools\SmartDashboard.jar, where PATH is the user home directory.

Can you try that command line from a terminal or command window?

Greg McKaskle

#4

It appears to be a working directory issue.

If I enter that command line from within the sunspotfrcsdk ools\ directory, it works. If I run that command line from elsewhere (ie C:), it fails to load the extensions and reports no Extension folder.

Looking at the SmartDashboard source, in FileSniffer.java, it appears to be searching “./extensions”

#5

Try placing your extension JAR file in the C:\Program FIles\SmartDashboard\extensions\ directory. This worked for us last year (though we were bit by a memory leak in last year’s image libraries).

If you are doing image processing as a SmartDashboard extension, I’d recommend that you monitor memory usage on your system as the memory leak we encountered last year was buried in one of the native Java DLLs. Hopefully, it’s been fixed for this season.

#6