Installing multiple versions of LabVIEW FRC

[Philbot]

Hello... Just listenning in....

Did I hear that right....   2012 FRC LabVIEW can't be installed on the same PC as "regular" Labview.

As a coach of multiple FIRST programs, I certainly can't have dedicated Laptops for Development...

Currently I have 2009 FRC LabVIEW8.6 installed, 2010 FTC Labview 2009 installed, and 2011 FTC LVLM 2010 installed.

Are you saying that the 2012 FRC Labview won't be able to be installed on the same PC?  What flavor of LabVIEW will it be using????

Will this be spelled out in the Installation notes?

I know many coaches are in the same position as me..

Phil.

[MegaHertz]

Hi Phil,

First off, you'll notice I branched off your post into a new thread on the FRC community. This is an important FRC-related question, so I want to make sure other FRC folks see it.

The setup you describe above is fine, because you're only using LabVIEW in its FRC/FTC form(s). LabVIEW FRC 2012 is built on LabVIEW 2011, so our concern is the potential impact on an existing LabVIEW 2011 user who then installs the FRC 2012 updates. Over in the FTC world, LabVIEW for LEGO Mindstorms (LVLM) allows the user to switch between the LVLM and standard LabVIEW 2010SP1 environments, so there's no lost functionality. LabVIEW FRC doesn't work in the same way, as there's no "switching back." Because the updates change LabVIEW 2011 into LabVIEW FRC 2012, that user would then "lose" their normal LabVIEW 2011. Does that make sense?

I will note, however, that the 2009 and 2010 licenses are both expired, which means you've got a lot of old and unusable development software taking up space on your laptop. With the new season getting underway, this may be a good time to start fresh with only LVLM FTC 2011 and LabVIEW FRC 2012 installed.

We're going to have some full-fledged documentation posted soon to make sure the installation caveats and guidelines are made clear. Thanks for asking!

Andy H.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Kevin_F]

Hey Phil,

I have a little bit of an update on this. While in previous years we recommended not putting LV FRC 8.6.1 on the same machine as regular LabVIEW 8.6.1 this year we have worked out the issues.  You will be able to install LabVIEW 2011 and LabVIEW FRC 2012 (which is built on LabVIEW 2011) on the same machine.  The one caveat is that you will need to repair the LabVIEW 2011 installation when the FRC liscense runs out to continue to use it normally.

There will be a document on this soon.

[Philbot]

Getting clearer, but still a little muddy.

Thnaks for the update...

Going back to the original reply...

What does " change LabVIEW 2011 into LabVIEW FRC 2012" really mean.

Is it just cosmetic, or are certain elements lost from easy access? How disrupting would it really be?

Secondly, I take your suggestion about removing past LabVIEW versions, but this means making past robot code largely inacessible.

Without the associated FIRST libraries it's hard to even display prior code for teaching reference. It seems like such a lost resource for teams.

It also eliminates the ability to reserect old robots for demos etc without recreating code that may not even run without the right libraries.

I'm big into code archives... just because you never know when you need to get into the wayback machine.

Deleting past versions just seems like such a big risk.

Any suggestions for how to keep legacy robots/systems available for future use?

Phil.

[Kevin_F]

Hey Phil,

Changing LabVIEW 2011 into LabVIEW FRC 2012 is mostly cosmetic.  The largest noticeable difference will be that the Getting Started Window will be changed to the FRC version until you repair the original LabVIEW installation.  This does make certain elements harder to access but you can still get to everything through the menus. You should not lost any toolkits or other functionality you have installed.  As far as past versions are concerned any LabVIEW code written in previous versions should open in the current version. I would think if you had the latest version of LabVIEW FRC installed you would be able to open old code since the libraries should be compatable. I didn't think much had changed in the functionality of the WPI libraries that would affect how your code executed but I could definitely be wrong here.  In that case there is probably use in having the older libraries still around.  If all you need is to use the robots for demos you may be able to get away with just creating a Real Time executable for each robot and just saving that so if need be you can deploy it to the robot again. This way you wouldn't need to keep the source around.  I would be interested in any issues you run into porting code from older FRC versions to the current version since I think that is important functionality.

[sciencewhiz]

Philbot wrote:

Secondly, I take your suggestion about removing past LabVIEW versions, but this means making past robot code largely inacessible.

Without the associated FIRST libraries it's hard to even display prior code for teaching reference. It seems like such a lost resource for teams.

It also eliminates the ability to reserect old robots for demos etc without recreating code that may not even run without the right libraries.

I'm big into code archives... just because you never know when you need to get into the wayback machine.

Deleting past versions just seems like such a big risk.

Any suggestions for how to keep legacy robots/systems available for future use?

Phil.

Have you actually fired up the 2009 FRC LabVIEW recently? My assumption was that since the license expired, it wouldn't run.

Based on that assumption, we always spend a day or so at the begining of the season to get the old code running in the new environment. In our code repository, in the 2009 folder we have our 2009 robot code built with the 2009 environment. In our 2010 folder we have the 2009 and 2010 code built with the 2010 environment (etc). The changes year to year have been very minor and it's been easy to open the old code in the new environment and resave (and occasionally make a few changes as needed).

[CamdenW]

This looks like the correct area. We just got the labview 2012 software, and are unable to do anything with it because it seems to only like usb 3.0 port, and we don't have a computer with that port, and so the driver software does not install correctly. Could you help on this? I am from Matomedi Zbots team 3454.

[Kevin_F]

Hey CamdenW,

The software should definitely install on a USB 2.0 port. What kind of behavior are you seeing from the USB drive?

[CamdenW]

Well, on some computers, it attempts to interface with the computer, but then an error appears that says "device driver did not install correctly" After that, plugging it into the computer again does nothing, and it doesn't show up anywhere in the devices menu. Our team has decided it's a defective USB, and have since sent for another copy of labview with hopefully better results. We are running windows 7 on every computer.

[Kevin_F]

Hey CamdenW,

Were you able to test if other USB devices worked correctly on your machine? Are you an administrator on the computer - I could see issues installing drivers if not. If you are an administrator and other USB devices work correctly then it is definitely possible something is wrong with the USB device. When you receive the new one please post back if you continue to have issues.