FTC DS App does not have OpModes

[FTC11330]

So rookie team here, first competition is on Saturday. Our robot and plans kind of blew up, lots of issues, etc. So we restarted with the PushBot. Bot is built, configured, and ready to go. We downloaded the apps from the Play Store, and I've checked, both apps (DC and RC) are up to date. I have the phones connected with Wi-Fi direct, have a ping rate, everything is flowing smoothly...EXCEPT I am now at the point where I need to select the OpMode and, there is nothing there. Whether I select TeleOp or Autonomous, I have no op modes. So basically I have a paperweight. Help in solving this would be great!

Thank you,
Erin
DHS Robotics

[FTC7253]

Did you comment out the @Disabled line in the opmode java file?

[FTC11330]

Umm, no. I thought the app was supposed to be plug and play. Where can I find instructions to do that?

[mikets]

If you look at the java file, you will find near the top a line like:

@Disabled

Either comment out the line or simply remove it, then opmode will show up on the DS phone. By default, FTC SDK comes with all the sample OpModes "disabled" so they don't clutter your list of opmodes on the DS. You need to explicitly enable which ones you want to see on the list by commenting out or removing the @Disabled line.

[FTC11330]

So do I need Android Studio for that? Or is there a way to edit the Java code from the app?

[3805Mentor]

My understanding was that crawl mode was to download the apps from Google and they should work with the example robots. There was no need to have Android Studio or do any programming.

There is no way to modify the app you downloaded from the app store. When you use Android Studio it uploads the ftcRobotController app that you modified from the SDK.

I tried downloading the app from Google and also found no opmodes available, I also transferred the apk from the doc folder from version 2.4 in the SDK and no opmodes.

I went back to the August 2015 version and all the example opmodes are there. So perhaps nobody has tried crawl mode for awhile and the current versions have all accidentally disabled the example opmodes.

SDK developers, have any input?

[Philbot]

My understanding was that crawl mode was to download the apps from Google and they should work with the example robots. There was no need to have Android Studio or do any programming.

There is no way to modify the app you downloaded from the app store. When you use Android Studio it uploads the ftcRobotController app that you modified from the SDK.

I tried downloading the app from Google and also found no opmodes available, I also transferred the apk from the doc folder from version 2.4 in the SDK and no opmodes.

I went back to the August 2015 version and all the example opmodes are there. So perhaps nobody has tried crawl mode for awhile and the current versions have all accidentally disabled the example opmodes.

SDK developers, have any input?

There aren't currently any "no coding required" opmodes pre-built into the SDK.

Your "Crawl mode" would probably be the Blocks Programming Interface, since that only requires a browser connected to the Robot Phone. (no Java or App inventor downloads)

http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/ftc/2016-2017-season/blocks-programming-tool-onepager.pdf

The programming is drag and drop. It's targeted with a very low entry point, but with the capability to do some very cool programming.

I think the feeling was that anyone doing FTC would need to do some programming at some point, otherwise it's just an expensive RC car.
But instead of just providing a generic opmode, we wanted to make getting started with programming as simple as possible.

If we look specifically at Java development...
Although installing the Android Studio SDK can be a challenge the first time, once you have it, it's really only a couple of clicks to build your first opmode.
The help files are detailed, and there are many tutorial videos out there (some of mine... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKPs...1FeqeqW1_pnzE2)

The developers anguished over whether to provide a completely canned opmode, but it would have been difficult to make it 100% canned, simply because of the variations between different "basic" robots.
In addition, if teams modified this default opmode, it may have been overwritten with subsequent updates, and this seemed a large a risk to take.

I could see that enabling a default Pushbot opMode JUST in the playstore download (but not in the public SDK code) could be an interesting compromise .

It's good to get feedback on these issues to know what future modification may be warranted.

[FTC11722]

So rookie team here, first competition is on Saturday. Our robot and plans kind of blew up, lots of issues, etc. So we restarted with the PushBot. Bot is built, configured, and ready to go. We downloaded the apps from the Play Store, and I've checked, both apps (DC and RC) are up to date. I have the phones connected with Wi-Fi direct, have a ping rate, everything is flowing smoothly...EXCEPT I am now at the point where I need to select the OpMode and, there is nothing there. Whether I select TeleOp or Autonomous, I have no op modes. So basically I have a paperweight. Help in solving this would be great!

Thank you,
Erin
DHS Robotics

If your competition this coming Saturday and you haven't started on programming, it's going to be tough. However, there are plenty people here that are able to help you. You just need to be ready to provide relevant robot information and being able to follow instructions.

[FTC11330]

If your competition this coming Saturday and you haven't started on programming, it's going to be tough. However, there are plenty people here that are able to help you. You just need to be ready to provide relevant robot information and being able to follow instructions.

Following instructions we can do. Mostly we are trying to get something that moves. Our District Tech department has refused to allow us access to the Github repository, MIT App inventor, or Android Studio developer. We've mostly been getting jerked around, and only got them to install the apps on the device last week. Because of that, all of our programmers got bored and quit, and now I have two students left interested, neither with any programming experience. So last night while trying to find solutions, I downloaded and installed Android Developer, all the requisite packages, got the phones into developer mode, and I think am now ready to take out the @Disabled comments and then try installing the apps on the phones. So I think we might actually get there.

The developers anguished over whether to provide a completely canned opmode, but it would have been difficult to make it 100% canned, simply because of the variations between different "basic" robots.
In addition, if teams modified this default opmode, it may have been overwritten with subsequent updates, and this seemed a large a risk to take.

I could see that enabling a default Pushbot opMode JUST in the playstore download (but not in the public SDK code) could be an interesting compromise .

It's good to get feedback on these issues to know what future modification may be warranted.

For our team, in our situation, that would be a great compromise! We intended to do our own programming, at least some of it, but have been so completely frustrated by our district's tech department that it proved impossible. At the very least, it would have been nice to know in the pushbot guide that the crawl solution is no longer a true option.

One question, should I remove the app that I downloaded from the Play store before connecting the new app we'll be creating in Android Studio?

Thanks!
Erin

[3805Mentor]

There aren't currently any "no coding required" opmodes pre-built into the SDK.

Your "Crawl mode" would probably be the Blocks Programming Interface, since that only requires a browser connected to the Robot Phone. (no Java or App inventor downloads)

http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/ftc/2016-2017-season/blocks-programming-tool-onepager.pdf

The programming is drag and drop. It's targeted with a very low entry point, but with the capability to do some very cool programming.

I think the feeling was that anyone doing FTC would need to do some programming at some point, otherwise it's just an expensive RC car.
But instead of just providing a generic opmode, we wanted to make getting started with programming as simple as possible.

If we look specifically at Java development...
Although installing the Android Studio SDK can be a challenge the first time, once you have it, it's really only a couple of clicks to build your first opmode.
The help files are detailed, and there are many tutorial videos out there (some of mine... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKPs...1FeqeqW1_pnzE2)

The developers anguished over whether to provide a completely canned opmode, but it would have been difficult to make it 100% canned, simply because of the variations between different "basic" robots.
In addition, if teams modified this default opmode, it may have been overwritten with subsequent updates, and this seemed a large a risk to take.

I could see that enabling a default Pushbot opMode JUST in the playstore download (but not in the public SDK code) could be an interesting compromise .

It's good to get feedback on these issues to know what future modification may be warranted.

I'll restate, I clearly remember reading about crawl mode and it being an option for rookie teams that would build a robot that would work with that hardware configuration. Why is there a RC apk available for download from the Google Play store and one in the docs in the SDK? Until the blocks programming came out just a few months ago there was no point in having these if they don't have any opmodes in them.

If there was a deliberate change in how rookies are to begin, the PushBot build guide should reference the blocks programming guide and have an example Pushbot opmode so they don't have to do any programming beyond copying an existing sample. A working program for an example robot has been lost to the beginners other than installing and using Android Studio as far as I can see.


Here is a link to PushBot build guide for 2016-2017, it gives as one of the options to download and use the canned pushbot app -

http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/ftc/2016-2017-season/pushbot-build-guide.pdf

Page 23
There are quite a few options for a Team to control the actions of the robot. This document doesn’t cover all of
them, but does provide two options. The two options described in this document are Downloading from
GitHub and Deploying using Android StudioThere are quite a few options for a Team to control the actions of the robot.

Slide 3 crawl mode -

http://www.slideshare.net/boyarsky/ftc-robot-c-to-java-47666063

[FTC7253]

@FTC11330 - When you reference your district's access restrictions, are you doing development on school computers? If so, you may want to consider having a non-restricted laptop to do development on and push app to phones. When you get to your first competition, you are almost certainly going to want to be able to make some tweaks - even if these tweaks are via a web interface using block programming. In that case, you will, at a minimum, need to be able to connect to a wifi network that is different from your district's.