Legacy sensor and controller support

[Cheer4FTC]

Hi,

The NXT has 4 sensor ports for connecting sensors, motor controllers, sensor multiplexers and superpro prototyping boards.
The NXT has 3 motor ports for connecting NXT motors.

How many ports will be available on the new hardware for legacy sensor support?

How many ports will be available for legacy motor controllers and will these be the same ports as for the sensors, as in the NXT? Will daisy chaining of legacy motor controllers be supported as it is now?

How many ports will be available for legacy NXT motor support?

Will there be complete support (drivers, etc) for all sensors currently used? In particular, will there be support for:
Lego sensors like touch, ultrasonic, color, light, etc?
HiTechnic sensors like gyro, accelerometer, IR, magnet, etc?
the HiTechnic Sensor multiplexer?
the HiTechnic superpro prototyping boards?

Will there be new hardware options for sensor interfacing and if so, what are their capabilities (number of sensors, analog/ digital, etc)?

Will teams be able to use sensors on the robot's Android device and what sensors will be on the standard device? Accelerometer? Compass? Gyro?

Will there be a camera on the robot's Android device and will teams be able to use the camera for image sensing and tracking?

[Cheer4FTC]

Quick follow up: if there is support for the NXT motors, will there also be support for the encoder feedback that allows these motors to be set to specific positions?

[Tom Eng]

Hi Cheer4FTC,

Thanks for the post. I responded to a similar question in this thread,

http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/showthre...2916#post12916

The new platform has something called a "Legacy Module" which lets an Android device talk to legacy LEGO NXT devices. Unfortunately, the LEGO NXT motors (the plastic orange and white ones that plugged into the NXT motor ports) will no longer be supported. However, LEGO Sensors, the Tetrix and Matrix Motor and Servo controllers, and other devices that connected to the NXT sensor ports are supported through the Legacy Module.

also there will be a new module called the Advanced Sensor Module that has multiple digital and analog I/O ports, plus PWM and I2C ports on board.

The Legacy Module has 6 NXT-style sensor ports. You can also add multiple legacy modules to the system if you wanted to. Similarly you can have multiple ASM modules (you just add more to the powered USB hub on the robot).

Note that there will also be new USB-enabled motor and servo controllers. These controllers can be connected directly to the Android controller via USB. They do not need to communicate through the Legacy Module (which used the slower NXT-style I2C comm). The USB-enabled motor and servo controllers will have a much higher communication rate than the legacy devices that communicate through the legacy module.

Most of the LEGO sensors should be supported for next season, and it is also possible to issue I2C commands to these legacy devices through the Legacy Module so you could communicate natively to a legacy device.

Instead of using a Hitechnic multiplexer, I would use the Legacy Module (or multiple Legacy Modules if I had a large number of legacy devices that I wanted to connect).

Instead of using a Super Pro proto board, I would consider using the Advanced Sensor Module to interface with external devices.

There will eventually be new sensors available for the ASM.

You will be available to use the on-board sensors of the Android device (typically gyro/accel and GPS - i think a compass sensor is also available on the devices we will be using for the initial rollout).

We are hoping to eventually add support for the built in camera of the Android device, although camera-related functions will probably be not available with the initial releases of the FTC SDK.

Tom

[Cheer4FTC]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the response. Quick follow ups:

Instead of using a Hitechnic multiplexer, I would use the Legacy Module (or multiple Legacy Modules if I had a large number of legacy devices that I wanted to connect).
Instead of using a Super Pro proto board, I would consider using the Advanced Sensor Module to interface with external devices.

Your suggestions are good ones for teams with large budgets.

But for teams with limited budgets that already own the multiplexer and/or superpro boards, will they still work with the Legacy Modules, or will teams be unable to use them and thus have to purchase new extra Legacy Modules and/or ASMs at additional costs?

[BSV]

We are hoping to eventually add support for the built in camera of the Android device, although camera-related functions will probably be not available with the initial releases of the FTC SDK.

That wouldn't necessarily preclude use of the camera, though (with android.hardware.camera2, for instance, instead of specifically developed FTC SDK calls), would it?

(http://developer.android.com/referen...e-summary.html)

Thanks

[hexafraction]

Note that there will also be new USB-enabled motor and servo controllers. These controllers can be connected directly to the Android controller via USB. They do not need to communicate through the Legacy Module (which used the slower NXT-style I2C comm). The USB-enabled motor and servo controllers will have a much higher communication rate than the legacy devices that communicate through the legacy module.

Are these going to support similar power ratings and motors to the existing TETRIX controllers?

[Tom Eng]

Hi Hexafraction - yes the power ratings for the new motor and servo controllers will be the same as the ratings for the existing Tetrix controllers.

[JimInNJ]

Here's a question that I haven't seen yet - Can we still daisy chain the legacy motor and servo modules, and how is this supported in the SDK?

[Tom Eng]

Hi Jim,

Yes, you can still daisy chain devices on the Legacy Module. This functionality exists, although our current beta SDK does not expose daisy-chaining in the UI yet.

Note that the new Legacy Modules have 6 NXT-style ports each. One thing that teams might want to consider is using more of the NXT-style ports instead of daisy chaining the devices. If you need more than 6 NXT devices on a bot, and if you have the budget, you can consider using two or more Legacy Modules on the bot. The engineers at QualComm said that the performance would be slightly better by using the individual ports, rather than daisy chaining multiple devices per port.

Tom

Tom

[FTC8811]

Hi Tom,

Everything you've said in this thread makes me want to throw all my legacy hardware in the trash. These many references to "the old stuff will work but the new stuff will be better) is not reassuring to those of us who have a huge investment in the current platform and limited time and resources to make the transition to the new.

As I said in another thread, I am all in favor of the changes from a technology standpoint. However, with this transition and the way it is being managed, FIRST FTC has created a real divide between the "haves" and the "have nots" in which the playing field is definitely not level for the foreseeable future. I'm not cool with that aspect of things.