What does c2 use for physical field control

Competition Control / C² | RECF C² | Hardware/Equipment
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Hi what is the physical mechanism to control fields (robots on/off). I plan to use my old Raspberry Pi controlled field displays by reflashing old TM to some distro with a browser. That part is clear. Walking around with a keyboard to make the browser window full screen is a bit annoying but not a deal breaker (unless c2 has/will have some remote control ability), basic Linux scripting can automate that. But what controls (starts/stops) the robots? What do drivers actually plug into? I know there is an open source project but that involves some circuit board manufacturing and tinkering. Will the old “smart controller” (v5 brains with no h-bridges) still work? Will it have to be freed of the competitor’s firmware and reflashed with something else? Thanks.

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At this time, C2 will be supporting the legacy field control hardware that was manufactured by Vex. We do not have a driver to support the use of the smart field controllers.

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Thanks. I hope people did not toss their old ones as Vex does not sell them anymore lol.

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@Mack_Kemper correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that RECF is developing a field control board using the legacy field control wiring that connects to the center RJ45 port on the Joystick Controllers.

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Is that coming out in future updates? Just wondering, I tried using it with the current beta and it doesnt see the bot or let me control the bot.

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At this time the only supported field control electronics will be the black legacy vex controllers (with no screen) that were manufactured by Vex Robotics. You can also utilize the smart field controllers manufactured by Vex Robotics however they will require a person to manually start/stop them for each period of the match.

We are still working on making the integration to support the legacy controllers, it should be available soon in the next week or so. We are hoping to have it included with the public release of the software on 10/1/26.

Regarding the other field control that was discussed previously and seen at the KU event:

It was being developed outside of RECF, however due to funding it can’t advance on the necessary steps to get approvals and certifications required for commercial manufacturing and distribution.

The designs for the earlier board that was seen at the KU event are available at openfc.dev.

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