SystemCore at FRC Offseasons

[Kevin-OConnor]

Hi all, I've received questions in a few different places from folks about using SystemCore at offseasons:

• Yes, it is allowed and encouraged to use SystemCore at offseason events
• There are no changes to FMS or anything particularly special FTAs should need to be aware of. You'll be using the same version of the DS that everyone else is and the FMS software only communicates with the DS.
• We currently recommend using the SystemCore web interface to set the Eth0 interface to a static IP of 10.TE.AM.2 (using the Gear tab) to maximize the robustness of the NI DS search process. It's possible later on that there may be a VH-109 update that makes this no longer necessary, if so I'll reply to this thread.
• While everything should just work, we recommend contacting the event FTA (event organizers can likely put you in touch) to let them know you'll be bringing a robot with SystemCore and that you would like to try to do a connection test as soon as feasible based on the event schedule. We recommend bringing your configured roboRIO with code loaded and ready to go in case any unexpected issues do pop up and are unable to be resolved.

[ericgaudet]

Sounds great. We would love to use it at the STEMley Cup Overtime event in Ontario (Sun Nov 2)!

[witcpalek]

Just an update we (Lake Orion Dragons team 302) successfully ran with the system core this past weekend at Kettering Kickoff. There were a few hardware changes we made from our comp bot from what we ran during the season.

• Switched from Digital Inputs on the RoboRio to using CANDi (they were already on the robot for a different reason that we ended up not using) due to the pull up/pull down resister issue that we didn't want to deal with yet.
• No LEDs - we have a hardware update in progress, but they weren't currently running
• Limited Logging - some of our custom logging was crashing, so we disabled it and are debugging it (pain with no debugger available) so we can report the issue.
• We continued to utilize the CANiVores due to some of the control modes that we are using not currently being supported on the System Core native CAN buses.

Overall, very successful out the door. We ended up as finalists and the second seed alliance captain while rotating drivers (last year's driver graduated, do we are trying out new drivers).

We plan on running SystemCore again at Bloomfield Girls Competition at the end of October with complete logging and LEDs.

[witcpalek]

Is the new driverstation compatible with FMS? I thought I read somewhere that it wasn't, but I can't seem to find it now.

[witcpalek]

No, it is not compatible with any current FMS releases.

Support is currently being worked on, both for the Official FMS and Cheesy Arena.

just confirming alpha 7 only supports cheesy arena and not fms, so running at offseason events not running cheesy arena we need to use a roborio. Is that correct?

[ThadHouse]

You can use the NI DS at other offseason events with Systemcore. It's only the DS that needs to be FMS compatible.

[witcpalek]

ok thanks, I guess we have to make the other change we contemplated as, but it is doable.

[sciencewhiz]

You should also ask the offseason whether the FMS will be running is FIRST DS compatible. For example Socal Showdown is running an version of FIRST FMS compatible with the FIRST DS.

That's why the main readme says:

Important

If you plan to use Systemcore at an offseason event, check with the offseason event to see if the version of FMS they are using is compatible with the FIRST Driver Station or not.

[Kevin-OConnor]

You should also ask the offseason whether the FMS will be running is FIRST DS compatible. For example Socal Showdown is running an version of FIRST FMS compatible with the FIRST DS.

That's why the main readme says:

[!IMPORTANT]
If you plan to use Systemcore at an offseason event, check with the offseason event to see if the version of FMS they are using is compatible with the FIRST Driver Station or not.

Currently SoCal Showdown is the only event we are planning to run that FMS at.