I wrote a program that allows my team to choose our autonomous using our LCD screen. Unfortunately, our competition switch broke. Is there any way I can test our autonomous selection program without it?
I believe in RobotC, there is a debugger window that does it, experiment with that
You can also stick the whole setup section in under a single button’s control in the remote control section. Press that button and proceed. If you don’t press that button, you can use the user control as normal. You can do the same thing with the autonomous routine.
Thanks, I’ll try that
If you are using robotC and have a programming cable, after you download your code and click start under robot > debugger windows> competition control, you can find a virtual competition switch
I recommend using a pot for auton selection. If the robot experiences a reset between the time you select on the LCD and the time auton starts, it won’t maintain your selection. A pot will read the value to which it was turned. Also, you can get 8 to 10 selections from a pot.
Sure, but has that ever happened to you? In my experience that isn’t a common issue, and (at least for me) the added readability, consistency (if you have a lot of autons, the analog noise and overall badness of the pot may mess it up), and features make up for the unlikely scenario of the robot resetting. That being said, if this is an issue you commonly experience or are genuinely concerned about, then sure, a pot would be better in that scenario.
I prefer the LCD screen because you can print sensor values and do things like ask specific questions of or give other information to the person setting it up. For instance, when you’re calibrating your gyroscope you can have a message that says “gyro calibration / do not move” until it is finished. On the specifics of selecting autonomous, you can integrate sensors into the selection and you can set up layers of options. That can quickly become way more than 8 to 10 pot selections, and you would still need to provide readouts on the LCD screen. Plus you’ve used up a sensor port for the pot that might be used for other purposes.
Yes, there is that one advantage to the potentiometer. But I’ve never had reset problems in that stage, and there are so many advantages to the LCD screen. So I don’t see myself ever choosing to go that direction.
@ZachDaChampion
Can’t say for sure. Last year’s senior team swore they had problems with it in the past. And, that season there was at least one match where our robot started later than the other alliance. We were using IEMs so that might have contributed. Not during auton last year our alliance stopped for 10 to 15 seconds during a match at state. After some complaining the ref did something with the field driver interface and both robots started working. We got good SPs that match.
@callen
Fair enough. We do use the LCD for info.
The LCD buttons do select what information to display. Press button 1 to show match Auton selection (from the pot). Press button 2 to turn off the display. Press button 3 to show battery status. Press button 1 and 2 to show auton selector pot values. etc. The programmer has been thinking about holding button 3 to let button 1 press-and-release cycle through options. But with V5 coming up, his motivation for adding new things is waning.
I so hear you on that! Reading input from the selection screen is bound to be different, and the utility with the screen on the remote is going to change how readouts are used. But most of us still don’t have them and so don’t get to mess with them yet. 