FTC Power Play season Technical Update

Technical Information for the FTC POWER PLAY Season:

Most important: A new version of Game Manual Part 1 was released yesterday, Rev 1.2 dated 10/18.  Please make sure to keep up to date with all new versions of the game manuals!

Here’s some great web resources with Technical Information for this season!

A new website being built by FTC technical staff as a repository of Technical Documentation and Tutorials.  This is a work in progress but already contains significant documentation and links to tutorials. Be sure to bookmark this and check back frequently!

https://ftc-docs.firstinspires.org/

Second is the Wiki page that is part of the FTC Robot Controller Github site. This wiki page provides information about using the FIRST Tech Challenge control system. It is a “living document” and is intended to be a central repository for information on how to configure, program, operate, and troubleshoot the FTC control system.

https://github.com/FIRST-Tech-Challenge/FtcRobotController/wiki

The following page on that wiki may be of particular interest to many teams this season.  It covers ways to deal with the limited availability of hubs and methods to maximize the use of motors & servos with only a single hub. Also, since this game is expected to rely heavily on claws and grabbers, the issue of servos and their power use becomes front and center. About halfway down the page they go into considerable detail on the use of servos and methods to prevent power starvation and brownouts on the robot.  If you are seeing resets and disconnects while running, this is a likely cause!  If you do find that you are having problems like this, please reach out to me using the “contact us” feature on the web page.

https://github.com/FIRST-Tech-Challenge/FtcRobotController/wiki/FTC-Single-Hub#servo-port-management

Finally, a new version of the FTC Robot Controller software (version 8.1) will be released in early November (exact date TBD).  Please update to this when when it comes out!  It is particularly important if you are using the IMU in the Rev hubs.  The new hubs contain a new IMU chip not supported by the current (Rev 8.0 or older) software. Even support for the older device is supposed to be substantially improved.

Jim Jackson,  NM FTC Program Delivery Partner and FTA