LabVIEW
Perhaps the biggest surprise in this year's FRC LabVIEW release is how little it has changed. The features that teams are used to are still there for the most part, though some new ones have been added that support the hardware features of the new control system. Please remember that everything you see here is Beta, and is still subject to change.

Title Page

Starting LabVIEW results in the same title page teams are familar with.

Create New Project

Creating a new project is also fairly familiar. One of the options includes support for creating a cRIO project as well, giving the new LabVIEW backwards compatibility.

Project Explorer

The only obvious difference in the Project Explorer is a lack of a robot IP address next to the project name. This is a result of the implementation of the mDNS system, which is a broadcast style network identification system that doesn't require static IP addressing.

Project Explorer Expanded

The structure of Robot Main hasn't changed either.

Robot Main VI

Clicking on the WPI Robotics Palette really shows only one major diffference: the new Power Palette.

WPI Robotics Library Menu

The Power Palette gives teams access to voltage and current readings of the new hardware. We'll review each VI by taking a look at its LabVIEW context help.

Power Palette

The "Get roboRIO Input V and I" VI allows the user to monitor the Input Voltage and Current to the roboRIO.

Get roboRIO Input V and I VI

The "Get 6Volt User Rail V and I" VI outputs the voltage and current of the voltage pin on the PWM rail.

Get Rail Voltage

The "Get PCM Compressor Current" VI returns the current the compressor is drawing from te Pneumatics Control Module.

Get PCM Compressor Current VI

The "Get PCM Solenoid Faults" VI allows the user to choose the Pneumatics Control Module (if they are using more than one) and Solenoid Channel to monitor for faults. In addition, one of the outputs is an array of all the faults on that particular PCM.

Get PCM Solenoid Faults VI

The "Get PDP Currents" VI allows the user to return the current of each individual Power Distribution Panel, or all of them in the form of an array.

Get PDP Current VI

The "Get PDP Voltage" VI allows the user to return the battery voltage.

Get PDP Voltage VI

That's it so far for new things from LabVIEW. Some old elements have been modified, but not substantially. For instance, the old Joystick "Get" VI has been deprecated in favor of two new ones that are more flexible and allow for a wider variety of joysticks.