New to VEX

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
1

Hello all.
i’m a student for electric engineering and i want to make a final project with a VEX kit
my college bought few VEX kits but i cant find a book or a guide…
so i dont really know how can i program the micro processor

so my question is where can i get a full data sheet or the offical guide/book
a pdf link will be great…

thanks :slight_smile:

2

Here is a great place to start. https://vexforum.com/wiki/index.php/Inventor’s_Guide Welcome to the forum.

~DK

3

Hello, Thanks for the link, i read it all and i’m looking for something more professional

I got few more question

i saw the program section in the VEX website and saw they sell
easyC Pro
easyC
ROBOTC
MPLAB

My college bought MPLAB so where can i find some kind of a book to explain how can i program the VEX ?

  1. If i want to make the VEX to be like a real car can i design it in some kind ?
    i want it to have a front dc motor and not 2 on the sides, is there any addons or stuff ?

  2. My project is based on 2 RC cars that can communicate so what should i choose - 2 RC toys with a micro processor on them or 2 VEX kits ?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

4

Vex doesn’t have any built in or first party method of communication between devices. You would have to design something for yourself to do that.

Maybe you should just spend a little time browsing through the Vex products so that you can ask more specific questions. They sell a differential gear set, so that takes care of the “typical” drive of a car and you can get rack and pinion gears to help with steering, though it will be up to you to design the rest of the car style steering.

While I think you could achieve all of what you want with Vex, a lot of it you might have to custom design yourself so perhaps you’d be better off with an RC car chassis with some other micro controller like an Arduino or something.

5

Vex was designed for Competitions as individual Vex Controllers, not to be Networked or to Collaborate together, although this will be possible, it just has not been implemented by us Hobbyists…

There is a Fundamental Protocol for Communicating Between the Vex Controller and a PC. (See Vex On-Line Code Vex] & PC] ).

But this is a Hybrid Protocol, in that the PC sends a Fixed Length Binary Commands, and the Vex Controller sends Variable Length ASCII Commands. I would lean toward Fixed Length Binary Commands for both Vex Controllers.

You could also look at the JVex Project for ideas or to use in its entirity.

6

ok, thanks all

7

Where can i find a pdf file the can show me how to program the vex controller ?

i use MPLAB and writing in C

thanks :slight_smile:

8

There are some specific guides for features like Timers and Interrupts, but I don’t recall of a Specific Guide for MPLAB.

You can Download these helps and see if they help answer some of your questions, VEX Machinations, VEX for the Technically Challenged. NOTE: (These two files appear to have been mis-placed, I will provide an Alternate Link)

I located another guide for the 2004 FRC Controllers, which are almost identical to the Vex Controllers… See Innovation First, Inc.
2004 Programming Reference Guide.

Plus you can look at other resource on the Wiki Page, Curriculum.

9

Great i will check it out, thanks!

10

Unfortunately, I don’t know of any programming tutorials in MPLAB. There are tutorials for the other 2 languages:

EasyC: http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/inventors-guide/programming-guide.pdf (I added a link to this in the Vex Wiki). This file takes a long time to download, so be patient!

RobotC: Video tutorial at [http://www.robotc.net/vex_full/

Beginners are usually inclined to start with EasyC or RobotC, although if you have extensive experience in other languages, you might be able to make the “jump”.](http://www.robotc.net/vex_full/)

11

Vex seems to have removed these documents from their website. I have them on my website at these links:

Vex Machinations - A step-by-step guide of building projects

Vex for the Technically Challenged– An overview of basic engineering principles as they apply to Vex.

12

There is an MPLAB tutorial and many PIC18 C related application notes on the Microchip web site using the following link:

http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=2095&param=en532194

13

Excellent!!! Now I don’t have to get permission to host them… NOT for Profit, of course… :wink:

14

I’ve reported the missing links to our Web team. Hopefully they will soon get them back up on the Wiki where they belong: https://vexforum.com/wiki/index.php/Curriculum

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