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Standalone RoboRio Testing with the Tethered Rover

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Kevin Lam edited this page Nov 19, 2018 · 14 revisions

Introduction

We have a lot of students who want to learn robot code development, and only a couple of existing FRC robots to work with. Some teams, especially rookies, don't even have that. We follow the good advice of building a robot control system laid out on a piece of plywood (we call ours Plyboy), but even this is expensive if you're setting up the entire FRC control system with a RoboRio, a PDP, VRM, access point, motor controllers, etc.

Fortunately it is possible to do simple robot code and training work using only a bare RoboRio and a few other inexpensive parts! This page describes our "Tethered Rover" development and experimentation platform.

Parts List

  1. RoboRio - from AndyMark
  2. 12V, 2A or greater power supply - This $12.99 one from Amazon includes a mating barrel connector with screw terminals which is convenient.
  3. A standard USB A-B cable
  4. Four continuous-rotation 9g micro servos - $6.57CAD ea from RobotShop
  5. Four micro servo wheels - $1.83CAD ea from RobotShop
  6. (optional) Four PWM extension cables - such as these 24" ones from RobotShop
  7. 18 gauge stranded wire
  8. Material for a rover chassis, such as Lexan, acrylic, plywood - ours is Lexan approx. 3"x5"
  9. Double sided foam tape or adhesive Velcro

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