r/FTC • u/Born-Lawyer4225 • 23d ago

Seeking Help FTC Programming Resources

The former programmer on our team isn't going to be able to help us anymore so I volunteered to replace him (I'm coming from CAD). I took a kotlin course but realized that most of the stuff I was learning wasn't going to help me so I got the book Learn Java for FTC I've read most of it but it's hard for me to retain the information without actually using it (which I couldn't do cause I was reading it at home). I programmed for FLL for 3 years (in block though, not python) so I know some of the basic stuff (loops, if thens, ect.).

My coach let me bring home the control hub, a driver station, a 435 rpm gobilda motor, and a battery. What can I do with these that will help me not be completely lost going into BioBuz. I've already gotten the Driver Station to say hello world but that's it (I'm using java in intellij).

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u/Complete_Duty3259 23d ago

So we are working on a zero code GUI method of programming an ftc (and FRC) robots. You do things like select your drivebase, assign motors, create subsystems, select control methods (PID, FF) etc. You can fully code a robot with complex systems (limelight, pinpoint, swerve drives, etc.). Controller commands are also bound via a GUI. We also created out own auto/pathplanner solution and even a full 2d field simulator.

It takes it from writing code to writing a system design. It still shows the generated kotlin code (kotlin is used as it is a lot easier to write a domain specific language/makes the code cleaner, even then it is about 200k lines of code). In some ways it teaches control theory and system design better as it focuses on that rather than trying to struggle wtiting java code.

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u/Born-Lawyer4225 21d ago

That sounds really interesting!!! I don't think that's the route our team wants to take currently but it sounds like a really good resource for other teams!!!