Robotics First Compition

[Sadao Fujiwara-san]

Does anyone know what type of microcontroller they supply if they do?  Thanks my school is starting a team and i want to learn the lang.

[arixrobotics]

I've never been in the competition, but I've seen a microcontroller board that they provide (but I don't know if they still provide/use the same thing). It is based on a PIC. However, it was totally enclosed, so you can't touch the components without voiding the warranty. And I think you can program it in various languages. I'm pretty sure C is one of the options.

Hope that helps.

[Sadao Fujiwara-san]

thanks alot

[Gertlex]

There might be a new controller this year, though.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/portal.php

Share that site with your entire team... it's the largest source of FIRST robotics related information and help that there is.  (actual forums link is in the top left on an orange bar)

[Half Shell]

I work with the Professor who completely redid WPIlib (named after my school, WPI) for the new controller. As a side note, I didn't work on WPIlib, just worked with him as one of his TA's. The new controller is a National Instruments FPGA with multiple modules prebuilt/coded for FIRST use. WPIlib has been transfered from its original C for the old FIRST/VEX controllers to Java for the new one. So in other words - learn Java!

WPIlib is ridiculously easy to learn - the function naming convention is very easy, and with the new module based approach you can literally make objects in code that represent a part of your robot.

For some reason the only official WPIlib site that I could find (here) only contains information about the old WPIlib - they may be keeping it a secret for the competition, so don't point too many people towards this post :-).