Introduction: Downloading the Arduino and Drive Station Software You'll Need for MiniFRC (UPDATED 5/13/18)

MiniFRC Is a Bi-annual mini-robot competition held by FRC team 4561, the TerrorBytes. Teams build quarter scale robots to compete on a quarter scale FRC field. In this tutorial, I will show you how to download and install all the necessary software for MiniFRC. This includes:

  • Arduino software
    • AFMotor library
    • SimpleSofwareServo
  • MiniFRC Driver Station 2017

This tutorial was made for windows 10

Step 1: Arduino Software

go to the arduino download page and click "Windows installer". Then click "Just download". When that finishes, run the exe and complete the wizard.

Step 2: AFMotor Library

Go to the AFMotor library Github. Click "Clone or download", then "Download ZIP". This will give you a zipped folder that contains the library. Launch Arduino and navigate to "Include Library" in the Sketch tab. Click "Add .ZIP Library..." and select the file you downloaded from the Github.

Step 3: (optional) Download the SimpleSoftwareServo Library

If you want to use a servo on your robot, the default servo library will not work. You will need to use the SimpleSoftwareServo library. You can download the zipped library here and install it the same way you installed the AF motor library.

Step 4: Downloading the Robot Code

There are 3 different default codes you can use for your robot, they can be found here (this link is also available in the team information document). The first (called "DefaultBot") is just a simple drivetrain. The second is "DefaultBotServo", you can use this code along with the library you downloaded in the previous step to control a servo on your robot. The third is "DefaultBotMotor", you can use this to control your drivetrain as well as a motor for an extra function on your robot.

Step 5: MiniFRC Driver Station 2017

Go to this Github repository. Click "Clone or download", then "Download ZIP". When that finishes, unzip the folder and navigate to MiniFRC-2017-master > MiniFRC-2017-master > build > exe.win32-3.5. There are 2 important files in that folder. The first one is the file "Drivestation.exe". Running this application is how you will launch the Drive Station. It is recommended that you add a shortcut to this exe on your desktop. The second file is "config.txt". Instructions on what to put in this file are in the "readme".