Robot Controller (2000)
The 2000 RC was a big upgrade from the older system. It used a BS2sx to replace the BS2. This was also the first one designed and manufactured by InnovationFIRST. It was used for the 2000-2002 seasons (and with minor modifications for the 2003 season).
The 2000-2003 Robot Controller systems consisted of three processors. The Operator Interface used a PIC16F877 microcontroller to collect data from all the digital and analog inputs and communicate with the Robot Controller via a radio or tether. The second processor was the user processor, a Basic Stamp 2SX. The User Processor was the only user-programmable CPU in the entire system. The third processor, the Master Processor, was a PIC16 microcontroller, which controlled the outputs for all relays, speed controllers, and other output devices. The General-purpose IO pins of the BS2SX were not accessible as they were connected to LEDs on the controller itself. The only direct connection available to the BS2SX was the “programming port”, two pins on the Stamp normally dedicated to RS232 communication with the host programming PC.
The 2000-2003 Robot Controllers were programmed in PBASIC, a Parallax-dialect of BASIC. Program flow was very similar to modern code, with a main loop and similar timing characteristics involved. Code would first have to declare all variables used, which were bits, nibbles, bytes, or words. Then initialization of the master processor would occur. The Stamp would use SHIFTOUT to establish communication with the Master Processor and bring the entire stack online. Then, the main loop would start. In the main loop, a long SERIN instruction would collect all input data from the Input microprocessor. The user code would manipulate the data as it saw fit, and then would use SEROUT to pipe the data to the Master microprocessor. This is roughly analogous to the current GetData() and Put_Data() in the PIC control system. Even the timing is nearly identical–both systems were required to output data ever 26.2 ms.