Setting Up A New Computer For Robotics - HHS-Team670/MustangLib GitHub Wiki

Setup and Protocols Guide

Authors: Armaan, Aditi, Ofek

Last Updated: 9/12/24

Feel free to contact us if you have questions: [email protected]

Prerequisites

  • Access to a computer running Windows, MacOS, or Linux
    • We strongly discourage trying to use a Chromebook; you'd have to boot Linux on it or find other ways as the tools we'll be using aren't supported on it.
    • If you don't have your own computer to work on, you will have to find someone to work with. Please try to get a laptop – You can’t learn how to code without practicing your skills!
  • Have an up-to-date version of the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed

Internet Tools

  • Recently the school installed securly, a firewall on the school wifi that prevents us from downloading dependencies and libraries from the internet.
  • To fix this you will need to install 1.1.1.1 from 1.1.1.1
  • After installing 1.1.1.1 click on the settings icon in the tooltip and switch to 1.1.1.1 (instead of 1.1.1.1 with WARP) as the school has broken WARP.
  • You should not need to log in with your email to browse the web anymore.

GitHub Setup

GitHub is our primary tool for collaborating on and managing code. All the code for our team's projects can be found on our team page here: https://github.com/HHS-Team670

If you haven't already, create a GitHub account at www.github.com.

Access to repositories on the team page will be provided as needed.

Next, for an easy-to-use GUI (Graphical User Interface), install GitHub Desktop here: https://desktop.github.com/

If you have a mac, you will also need to get an ssh key for github: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent

FRC Java Tools Setup

  1. Once you have completed the previous steps, you are ready to install the FRC-specific tools we'll be using.

  2. The IDE we will be using is Visual Studio Code, which allows us to easily deploy robot code with GradleRIO and also supports a ton of languages. We'll be downloading VSCode along with the WPILib library and special FRC plugins as well as other utilities.

  3. Follow the instructions to download and install all these tools:

i. https://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/getting-started/getting-started-frc-control-system/wpilib-setup.html

ii. Choose the instructions for your OS, and follow the prompts exactly as on that webpage.

  1. Direct link to the official WPILib and tools release, for reference: https://github.com/wpilibsuite/allwpilib/releases/. Check for updates if necessary, in the case of changes we'll let you know.

Additional VSCode Plugins

We highly recommend that you install the Team 670 Extensions Pack, Live Share, and Tabnine in the “Extensions” section of the VSCode menu. It includes the following extensions that will make your life much easier.

General:

  • Gradle Language Support
  • Java Extension Pack
  • Maven for Java
  • Visual Studio IntelliCode
  • Team 670 Extensions Pack
  • Auto Import
  • Git History
  • Git Project Manager
  • GitLens
  • LiveShare

Nice to have:

  • Intllicode
  • Power Mode

These help with reading and making sense of data files:

  • Rainbow CSV
  • PrettifyJSON
  • Prettier
  • vscode-icons

Communication

We will be using the platforms Discord and Trello for communication and planning. If you haven't already, make a Discord account at https://discord.com.

Join the tech workshop server here: https://discord.gg/WwzS9Eh2

Make sure you are receiving emails! If you aren’t receiving (and reading!) emails, contact a lead ASAP. https://bit.ly/HomesteadRobotics - Join the email list if you aren’t receiving emails.