Tools

What are tools?

Tools are software from the NI or Vendor libraries that allow us to interact with the robot outside of code. This can be useful for identifying devices, testing PID values or testing configs. Usually, our tools are our best friends because they provide crucial information that lets us fill in blanks.

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Essential Tools

Driver Station (DS)

Driver Station is the biggest communicator between the drivers and the robot. It provides statuses, error logs and information regarding the control systems that are in use on the robot. To open Driver Station, type "FRC Driver Station" into your search bar after installing the NI Game Tools. On the left of DS is the tab section, to the right of that are the robot status lights and one more over is the error log.

1. Operation
   This tab is mainly for selecting what mode you want to use. The options are TeleOp, Autonomous, Practice and Test. The main ones you'll use are TeleOp and autonomous. Also, on this tab there are the enable and disable options. To make the robot move or to give it inputs, you have to enable. Warn people when you enable. Disable makes the robot stop in its tracks. Pressing spacebar activates E-Stop, which stops all motor inputs and won't let you reenable the robot. You need to repush the code for it to work again.
2. Diagnostics
   This tab is used to see what connection you have to the robot and to diagnose what's wrong with it. Most of the lights are self-explanatory. If you can't seem to connect to the robot, check if the Robot Radio light is illuminated. If it is, then it's a problem with the radio. If it isn't, then it's most likely a problem with the roboRIO. You can also reboot the roboRIO and restart the robot's code from this tab. Make sure the firewall on your laptop is down if you see the firewall light illuminated.
3. Setup
   This tab allows us to change some settings with DS. The main one you'll want to change is the Team # for your computer. If your roboRIO and Driver Station do not have the team number, you will not be able to have communications. Change the Dashboard type to Shuffleboard. We don't use SmartDashboard anymore. We don't usually use the test timings, but it will be useful for later on when we want to fully test the robot.
4. USB Devices
   This tab allows us to see what devices are connected to the laptop. When we declare a new XboxController(0);, that 0 refers to the USB Devices tab. You can see what index the device is and move it around to match what you have in code. You can also click on controllers and see which button refers to which number, which refers to the number in a new JoystickButton(num);.
5. Power & CAN
   Provides information about the power draws and CAN bus signals being produced on the robot. Good for debugging big problems.

Shuffleboard

Shuffleboard is basically a huge grid that lets us put widgets onto it. These widgets can show any amount of information that we want. The primary things that you'll use shuffleboard with are as follows:

1. Variable Supplier
   Variable supplier basically takes the output of a method and then puts it into a shuffleboard tab.

   ShuffleboardTab tab = Shuffleboard.getTab("tab"); // gets the tab named tab. if it doesn't exist, it creates it.
   tab.addNumber("name of widget", () -> methodThatReturnsNumber()); // the variable type has to match the add method (tab.add<VariableType>)

2. Command or misc
   If what you what you want to give Shuffleboard is not a primitive type, then you need to just have add(). Putting commands in here shows you the status of its scheduling. Putting subsystems shows you the default command and the current scheduled command.

   ShuffleboardTab tab = Shuffleboard.getTab("tab");
   tab.add("command", myCommand); // adds myCommand and its scheduling info onto that tab.

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Non-Essential Tools

Phoenix Tuner

Phoenix Tuner is used to test CTRE devices, which usually consist of Talon SRXs and Falcon 500s (Talon FXs). It's not essential that you have Phoenix Tuner unless you are updating the firmware on some CTRE devices. Check the updating devices tab for more information about how to do that. On Phoenix Tuner, there are tabs