For Robots and Drivers

Driver Station Tools

STOP

Install the Developer Tools before installing the Driver Station. The Developer Tools contain elements required by the DriverStation including the SmartDashboard and Shuffleboard dashboard.

NOTE: The NI Tools and DriverStation are Windows based tools. These tools are not required by developers, but they are required in order to configure your RoboRio, and all CAN connected devices. These tools are used to update the firmware on the Power Distribution Panel (PDP) and the Pneumatics Control Module (PCM).

NOTE: The Shuffleboard, SmartDashboard and Outline viewer are critical tools used in the debugging of your robot. They are distributed with the development tools, and so the development tools must be installed on the DriverStation laptop even if this laptop is not being used for development. Before installing the DriverStation, install the Development Tools !

STEP 1: Install the National Instruments FRC Game Tools (including the DriverStation)

Download the Update Suite

Install the National Instruments RoboRio Tools and Driver Station

The National Instruments Update Suite contains the DriverStation software and some of the tools required to configure the robot hardware. Click the download button to the left. You will need to create a National Instruments account to download the FRC Update Suite. The activation key can be found in your Kit of Parts but is not required for a trial installation.

WPILib provides complete instructions for installing the National Instruments FRC Game Tools. Key components in the suite are:

Driver Station - used to connect to and drive the robot
RoboRio Imaging Tool - used to re-image a RoboRio and assign a team number to the hardware

STEP 2: Formatting and Imaging the RoboRio

Use the RoboRIO Imaging tool to update the Firmware and assign the Team Number to the RoboRIO

The wpilib docmentation describes in detail how to format your roboRIO depending on whether you have a roboRIO 1 or 2

RoboRIO 1 Instructions

RoboRIO 2 Instructions

STEP 4: Configure the Radio

Configure the Radio

Configure the Radio in order to be able to connect to the robot wirelessly.

The current radio configuration is version is 24.0.1 (Jan 2024). It can be downloaded from the Configuring the Radio page below.

NOTE: Networking and connections issues are the most and frustrating and least well understood challenges in FIRST. The Radio Configuration Utility is no exception to this rule.

It is important to carefully follow all of the steps in the documentation for Configuring the Radio.

STEP 5: CAN Bus Tools - Updating CAN Devices Firmware

Windows Phoenix X Installer

CAN Bus Tools

The CAN bus tools supplied by CTRE can be used to update the CAN Bus device Firmware. This tool is required to update the firmware on the CTRE Power Distribution Panel (PDP) and CTRE Pneumatics Control Module (PCM) and to update any CAN based Victor or Talon speed controllers.

To install the CAN bus tools:

install the Phoenix X Tuner from the Microsoft Store
Connect to the RoboRio using a USB Cable (do not use an Ethernet connection)
Use the tool to set CAN id addresses and update the CTR device firmware.

Download the REV Hardware Client

REV SPARK MAX Controllers, REV Power Distribution Hub and REV Pnuematics Hub

The REV Hardware Client is required to update the firmware for ALL REV Robotics hardware, including the motor controllers, power distrubution hub, and the pneumatics hub.

To install the REV Hardware Client:

download and install the REV Hardware Client.
Connect to any REV device using a USB-C cable. It may be possible to update multiple devices depending on the firmware level of the device, and whether the address overlaps with another device on the CAN Bus. Each device can be updated individually by connecting directly to the device, and updating the firmware and the CAN Bus address and description.

Additional Software

SmartDashboard

The SmartDashboard automatically shows all of the Robot Data.

Shuffleboard

An updated SmartDashboard

Outline Viewer

Outline Viewer is a browser for all of the Network Table data shared between the Driver Station and the RoboRio including data that is not in the SmartDashboard portion of the network tables. This tool is useful for debugging purposes.

NOTE: These components are required to debug information coming from the RoboRio. They are distributed with the development tools. Installation of the development tools is required on the DriverStation in order to get the Shuffleboard and Outline Viewer. See installing the Development Tools

Additional Resources and Documentation

Wpilib Support Documentation

FRC Software Component Overview - complete overview of FRC Software including C++, Java, Labviews programming and robot config tools. Lots of information here but not all of it is required for Java programmers.

The key components required for Java teams are the Driver Station, imaging tools to format the roborio, and the Shuffleboard dashboard

RoboRio Configuration Dashboard

The RoboRio config dashboard must be used to update firmware on all CAN bus devices. This tool requires Silverlight which is only natively supported on Internet Explorer. Silverlight is not supported using the Edge browser.

When connected by USB cable: go to http://172.22.11.2
When connected by radio: go to http://robotRIO-team-FRC.local

Key IP Address Lists

roboRIO USB: 172.22.11.2
roboRIO mDNS: roboRIO-####-FRC.local (where #### is your team number with no leading zeroes) You should be able to use this address to communicate with the roboRIO over either interface through ping, browser, etc.
Robot Radio: 10.TE.AM.1 (where TE.AM is your 4 digit team number with leading zeroes if required)
DHCP range: 10.TE.AM.20 to 10.TE.AM.199

Who owns all the pieces?

From the Building and Contributing to WPILib presentation at the FRC Championship: http://wp.wpi.edu/wpilib/files/2018/05/Building-and-Contributing-to-WPILib-2018.pdf

NOTE: CAN Bus Tools are supplied by Cross the Road Electronics (CTRE)

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