Displaying Expressions from a Robot Program

Not

Often debugging or monitoring the status of a robot involves writing a number of values to the console and watching them stream by. With SmartDashboard you can put values to a GUI that is automatically constructed based on your program. As values are updated, the corresponding GUI element changes value - there is no need to try to catch numbers streaming by on the screen.

Writing Values to SmartDashboard

JAVA

protected void execute() {
   SmartDashboard.putBoolean("Bridge Limit", bridgeTipper.atBridge());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Bridge Angle", bridgeTipper.getPosition());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Swerve Angle", drivetrain.getSwerveAngle());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Left Drive Encoder", drivetrain.getLeftEncoder());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Right Drive Encoder", drivetrain.getRightEncoder());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Turret Pot", turret.getCurrentAngle());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("Turret Pot Voltage", turret.getAverageVoltage());
   SmartDashboard.putNumber("RPM", shooter.getRPM());
}

C++

void Command::Execute() {
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutBoolean("Bridge Limit", BridgeTipper.AtBridge());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Bridge Angle", BridgeTipper.GetPosition());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Swerve Angle", Drivetrain.GetSwerveAngle());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Left Drive Encoder", Drivetrain.GetLeftEncoder());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Right Drive Encoder", Drivetrain.GetRightEncoder());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Turret Pot", Turret.GetCurrentAngle());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("Turret Pot Voltage", Turret.GetAverageVoltage());
   frc::SmartDashboard::PutNumber("RPM", Shooter.GetRPM());
}

PYTHON

from wpilib import SmartDashboard
SmartDashboard.putBoolean("Bridge Limit", bridgeTipper.atBridge())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Bridge Angle", bridgeTipper.getPosition())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Swerve Angle", drivetrain.getSwerveAngle())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Left Drive Encoder", drivetrain.getLeftEncoder())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Right Drive Encoder", drivetrain.getRightEncoder())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Turret Pot", turret.getCurrentAngle())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("Turret Pot Voltage", turret.getAverageVoltage())
SmartDashboard.putNumber("RPM", shooter.getRPM())

You can write Boolean, Numeric, or String values to the SmartDashboard by simply calling the correct method for the type and including the name and the value of the data, no additional code is required. Any time in your program that you write another value with the same name, it appears in the same UI element on the screen on the driver station or development computer. As you can imagine this is a great way of debugging and getting status of your robot as it is operating.

Creating Widgets on SmartDashboard

Widgets are populated on the SmartDashboard automatically, no user intervention is required. Note that the widgets are only populated when the value is first written, you may need to enable your robot in a particular mode or trigger a particular code routine for an item to appear. To alter the appearance of the widget, see the next two sections Changing the Display Properties of a Value and Changing the Display Widget Type for a Value.

Stale Data

SmartDashboard robot ve driver station bilgisayarı arasında değer iletmek için NetworkTables kullanmaktadır. NetworkTables ad ve değer çiftlerinin dağıldı bir tablo görevi görmektedir. Ad/değer çifti istemci (bilgisayar) ya da sunucudan (robot) birine eklenmişse, diğerine de kopyalanmaktadır. Ad/değer çifti örneğin robottan silinmiş ama SmartDashboard veya OutlineViewer çalışmaya devam ediyorsa, robot yeniden başlatıldığında eski değerler gösterge panelleri çalışmaya devam ettiği ve tablolarında silinen değerleri bulundurmaya devam ettikleri için yine de SmartDashboard ve OutlineViewer’da belirecektir. Robot yeniden başlatıldığında bu eski değerler robota kopyalancaktır.

SmartDashboard ve OutlineViewer’ın anlık değerleri göstermesini sağlamak için NetworkTables istemcileri ve robotu aynı anda yeniden başlatmak gereklidir. Bu sayede ikisinden birinin barındırdığı eski değerler diğerine aktarılmayacaktır.

This usually isn’t a problem if the program isn’t constantly changing, but if the program is in development and the set of keys being added to NetworkTables is constantly changing, then it might be necessary to do the restart of everything to accurately see what is current.