FIRST Robotics Competition Discussions
What are the LabVIEW Resources available to team members and mentors?
Hi Mark,
Thank you for the fast response. On my work computer I happen to have LabVIEW 8.6 Professional version with the Vision Module and Control Module.
When I open the frc.chm file with or without opening LabVIEW 8.6, for all levels of the WPI Robotics Library VIs sub-tree, I get the following page titled:
 | The page cannot be displayed |
For the FIRST Robotics Competition VIs, First Vision VIs, and PID VIs, the headings only in those portions of the tree give the same page as described above. However, for the actual help for each First Vision VI and PID VI, I do get the expected help information. Maybe thats because I do have those modules on my work computer.
I am currently getting the correct help information for the First Vision VIs and PID VIs. I get "The page cannot be displayed" for all of the WPI Robotics Library VIs.
For my other question, what I am trying to clarification, is this. Currently unless I actually have a piece of equipment like a cDAQ device with various data acquisition modules installed and connected to my computer, none of the measurement data acquisition VIs are available to use in my block diagram even though I have the full LabVIEW 8.6 and latest NI-DAQ software loaded. So I assume that the same will be true for the 25 copies of LabVIEW 8.5.1 with FRC VIs, in that any VI related to data acquisition or control will not be available unless the cRIO or Camera are actually connected to one computer at a time. Each of those VIs related to data acquisition and control will show up with a question mark on everybody elses computer not connected to hardware. Is this in fact true?
What I am trying to do is account for this, if it is true, in order to share LabVIEW VIs in LabVIEW, instead of using HTML or RTF files.
My thoughts were to take the information from the HELP files and build at first dummy or empty VIs for each of the acquisition and control VIs and use the same ICON adding a small "sim" for simulation to differentiate it. I could initially just populate the respective VI with nothing more than the controls and indicators. Then each student could actually build complete VIs with the simulated VIs staying in the real LabVIEW environment. That way all 25 students could fully and easily work out any robotics idea they have in the LabvIEW environment. When they are ready to try out their idea, they connect to the equipment and replace the simulated VIs with the real VIs, which would only take a few minutes. A next step for the students throughout the remainder of their licensed year, could be work on programming simulators for each of the acquisition and control VIs as mini learning projects. I am open to building all of the blank VIs as a start and making them available to all the FRC community; but It could be about 20 to 40 hours work, that I don't want to do if there is a better solution that I am unaware of at this time.
Do any of the other beginning mentors or students think this would be helpful? Please let me know.
Best Regards,
Jim Berger
Jim,
@ jim_berger@baxter.com wrote:
When I open the frc.chm file with or without opening LabVIEW 8.6, for all levels of the WPI Robotics Library VIs sub-tree, I get the following page titled:
#
The page cannot be displayed
For the FIRST Robotics Competition VIs, First Vision VIs, and PID VIs, the headings only in those portions of the tree give the same page as described above. However, for the actual help for each First Vision VI and PID VI, I do get the expected help information. Maybe thats because I do have those modules on my work computer.
I believe you can resolve your issue with the help file by following these steps:
- If you cannot view the content of the file after downloading, right-click the CHM, and select Properties from the shortcut menu.
- In the Properties dialog box under the Security section click the Unblock button.
Please let me know if this resolves your issue.
@ jim_berger@baxter.com wrote:
For my other question, what I am trying to clarification, is this. Currently unless I actually have a piece of equipment like a cDAQ device with various data acquisition modules installed and connected to my computer, none of the measurement data acquisition VIs are available to use in my block diagram even though I have the full LabVIEW 8.6 and latest NI-DAQ software loaded. So I assume that the same will be true for the 25 copies of LabVIEW 8.5.1 with FRC VIs, in that any VI related to data acquisition or control will not be available unless the cRIO or Camera are actually connected to one computer at a time. Each of those VIs related to data acquisition and control will show up with a question mark on everybody else's computer not connected to hardware. Is this in fact true?
This is not true. The VIs that make up the FIRST Vision, PID, and WPI Lib palettes will be available to a user of the LabVIEW FRC Package even if they do not have a cRIO-FRC connected to their computer. Please keep in mind that although we can access these VIs without a cRIO-FRC connected to the development machines they will not run unless they have been targeted to run on the cRIO-FRC.
As for you idea of creating a simulated WPI Lib - I think this is excellent idea. Open source teaching and training tools are highly encouraged by FIRST and NI. I hope you can post your VIs here. I would also like to point you to a similar set of VIs developed by some FIRST mentors that has been...
Thanks,
Mark
