FRC Resources

This is the resources page. Here we document technical aspects of what we do in order to preserve knowledge and help people learn more about how to design, build, program, and operate robots. Be sure and check the Team Documents Page if you don't find what you are looking for here.

  • The Spartan Robotics Team Documents Page has links to some of the many documents used to organize the team and design the robots. Several of the links that used be included below have been moved to the Team Documents Page
  • SolidWorks
    • The SolidWorks Drawing Guide describes how to create drawings for manufacturing parts from part drawings. Hershal created it. The most recent version in MS doc format is available in the 2011/doc svn folder.
    • SolidWorks Installation Guide
    • www.Facebook.com/SolidWorksEducation is a facebook page dedicate to students and teachers who love SolidWorks.  The Facebook SolidWorksEducation page focuses on the SolidWorks Community, SolidWorks Tutorials, SolidWorks Jobs, and SolidWorks Certification. It's all about helping students, whether in class or looking for the best careers, find the tools they need. It's all about helping educators find the materials they need to make teaching and learning easier.  From May 22, 2012 email from Roy.
  • Robot electronics - cRIO, Jaguars, 2CAN, and driver station.
    • cRIO, wireless adapter, and router configuration notes.
    • Jaguar/Black Jaguar User Guides and Firmware.  
    • 2CAN is used to communicate with the Jaguars.  The software download page for the 2CAN is on the http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.com/2CAN.htm website.  It probably is a good idea to use the software listed in the FIRST section.  Brian says that you connect the 2CAN to a laptop and somehow set the computer network settings up to talk to the 2CAN and then access a webpage on the 2CAN to update the firmware.  See page 12 in the C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\2CAN\2CAN User Manual_v_1_4.pdf file on a programing laptop or download it from the http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.com/2CAN.htm website.  Michael Sept 2011. 
    • Driver Station Notes:
      • Control System Basics - All the basics about the robot control system
      • Before the 2011 Madtown Throwdown competition, we would loose control of the practice bot.  It would not respond to stick inputs so we would have to disable it.  It appeared that the labtop was loosing communication with the USB devices used for the wheel, throttle, and manipulators.  Perhaps the powered drive wheel was part of the problem.  We replaced the passive USB hub with a powered USB hub and this greatly reduced the problems and may have even eliminated them.  The unit we purchased was a Winstar WS-UH3041 USB3.0/2.0 4-Ports Hub w/ AC Adapter Black 5Gbps for $30 from Central Computers on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.  Michael & Alex.

Website management

  • Tutorial on creating accounts.  This page also tells how to change a password from the "People" page.
  • Overview of updating the website (only visible to logged-in users).
  • Notes on how to manage the website and update the content on it (only visible to logged-in users).
  • If you have an account, login to the website and edit pages by going to frc971.org/user. 
  • Website backups can be made and downloaded by going to Home >> Configuration >> System >> Backup and Migrate.  The SQL dump will contain all of the textual data for the site, as well as settings. There are also, of course, the various binary files stored in the "/images" and "/sites" folders to back up, too. 
  • Articles show up on the website home page.  Sticky ones have precedence over the others and demoted ones don't show up on the home page.  Use the "update options" feature on the content page to control these attributes.
  • The website will work best in the long run if we use the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) for web pages and save images and documents outside of the CMS.  The CMS uses some sort of a database which will become unwheeldy if too many large files are added to it.  Some systems don't alow deleting of things added which means that it is important to always uses something else for the images and documents.
    • The team frc971.org server is managed by Stephan and Michael.  It is on a fiber Ethernet connection so it has fast file access.  It is also backed up nightly to a remote site so files stored there are less likely to be lost.  Store images, pdf documents, and other content in apache.frc971.org:/var/www/frc971.org/{images,pdf,...}.  Access these files with links like /images/20111227_svn_checkOut_michael.PNG.  Michael
    • We have some content in links to apache.frc971.org:/var/www/frc971.org/pdf.
    • In the past, we have been adding images to this site by uploading them to the 971 Google Picasa website in the SpartanRoboticsWebsiteResourceImages album, and then using the "Link to this Photo" information from the right frame when viewing the image to extract a link to the photo. Be sure and select the correct image size in the "Select size" drop-down menu in the right frame. See the Robot wiring techniques page for examples of linked in Google Picasa images.

As of October 2010, most of the content on these resource pages has been added by Michael Schuh with significant help by Parker Schuh. If you have comments on the existing pages or suggestions contact Michael or Parker. Also contact them if you would like to add some content. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Michael can be reached by email at Michael.971web at Boardsailor.com and or by phone at (650) 965-8037 Home and (650) 604-1460 Work.