Hey tseres,

That is really great feedback. We are definitely working on more tutorials. They are currently being developed. If there are any specific topics within LabVIEW that you are interested in, please let us know. The tutorials are coming shortly.

Keep the feedback coming. It is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sarah S

It would be helpful if you can show us how to use the NI Compact Rio. This extremely broad, so let me give some examples.

Tutorials on how to program the cRio, specifically how to use the cRio "addon/toolkit/driver" that comes with the cRio for LabVIEW

How we will be connecting to the cRio and communicating with it. I understand we will be using a wireless connection, but how will we program that connection and how can we use it?

How to us the digital sidecar (I think that's what it's called) to convert I/O into PWM I/O.

Maybe some recommended ways on how to switch from autonomous mode to teleoperated mode?

And don't forget all the C users out there.

Thanks alot, I think this community that you've set up is really nice.

I thought of some more examples to my earlier post.

Could you tell us the difference between the cRio we will get in the kit and the one you currently sell?

Can you discribe the Oporator Interface that we get in the kit? (if you can release this information, of course, although they did have OIs set up at the displays at Atlanta, Georgia)

Discribe how we can attach the cRio to our robot. Are there screw holes?

Can you discribe the default code that we will get from FIRST for LabVIEW and C? This year we got default code from FIRST for C and we usually had to just plug our PWMs into the right spot and we would have a moving robot. How will the referies interfere with our robot if they want to disable us? (again, if you can release this information)

I realize now that you were asking what type of resources we wanted, not what was in them. I hope this helps out anyway, though.

I agree with Myrlem. It would be nice to be able to know the basic, obviouse things, and the concept of the cRio. Looking for information about LabVIEW and the cRio is just like what teams used before the kickoff. Any new members would look online and at past manuals and get to know enough about the programming and such to have the general idea once the real work started.

Can you discribe the default code that we will get from FIRST for LabVIEW and C? This year we got default code from FIRST for C and we usually had to just plug our PWMs into the right spot and we would have a moving robot. How will the referies interfere with our robot if they want to disable us? (again, if you can release this information)

The default code for next year will consist of a number of resources:

1. Libraries that will help you access the parts on your robot like sensors and motors, driver station values, and field settings. C/C++ library will be designed so you simply add your code to Autonomous() or OperatorControl() functions/methods that will be called at the right times during the competition. You'll also be able to control the state of the robot from switches on the driver station. All the C and LabVIEW source code will be open source so all teams will be able to review, modify, and hopefully suggest improvements back to the authors.

2. Many sample programs that will demonstrate the use of all the components of the libraries.

3. And other code still being developed

You can use the libraries as is by calling the functions/classes from your programs or you are free to grab the source code and modify the libraries to meet your requirements. Although the hope is the code is sufficiently extensible that you can customize it without modifying the source code.

Brad

Hi cabbagekid2,

The LabVIEW software will have multiple examples. The goal is for you to have access to simple examples that demonstrate the available sensor and output features. You could then potentially copy and paste all the simple examples into one VI and integrate them all into one program. Of course, you can also start from scratch and build your program using the examples as templates.

I've never used EasyC, so I can't compare what will be available with relation to this software.

From what I understand, each driver station can only control one robot.

The LabVIEW FRC edition was built from LabVIEW 8.5.1. Of course, an overhaul was done. You will have custom palettes that allow you to access your FRC sensors and outputs. Most of the other palettes (math functions, loop structures, etc.) will also be included.

I hope this helps,

Kevin S.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

Since there is a lot of training resources on the NI web site already - I would like to a list of which ones you would recommend we go though. Developing new ones is great - but leveraging what you have makes sense to me.

Rob Steele

Great Idea.

If there are teams that have set up a training course using the NI resources it would be great to post it here so others may follow it.

In My NOT SO HUMBLE OPINION...NI and FIRST should release the basic code during the fall since this is a big change from the past.  That way teams can start working and understanding the basic code for controlling the robots.

David

Mentor Team 399

LA Regional Chairman Award Winners 2007, 2008 

<span class="jive-thread-reply-body-container">Mark:

The key to make this change over a success is your statement of  "This training should be available before the kits ship."   It is already July and the summer is slipping away.  Our schools start August 11th and we would like to have a good 4 months of training prior to kick-off.   We should not wait till the whole training is put together but just release it in moduals that we can get going... The bad part is lack of access to the CRio hardware to "play" with...

The most helpful, free, self contained set of slides and exercises for learning LabVIEW is the "Teach LabVIEW in 6 Hours" material from http://www.ni.com/academic/resources_how_teach_lv.htm.  It covers core LabVIEW topics that are extensible to LabVIEW Real-Time and FPGA that are used in CompactRIO.

There will be a video walk-through of how to do this included our first "phased" release of training material next week!