The FRC Driver Station Software

What it is#

The FRC Driver Station is the only legal program for controlling an FRC robot, installed as part of the NI FRC Game Tools on the driver station laptop (Windows). It talks to the robot's roboRIO over the network, sends your joystick/controller inputs, and reports the robot's health back. During a real match it is, in turn, controlled by the field's FMS (Field Management System).

The tabs you must know#

The Driver Station UI is organized into tabs (per the WPILib documentation):

• Operation — the home screen. Select robot mode (TeleOperated, Autonomous, Practice, Test), Enable/Disable, and see elapsed match time, PC battery, and CPU use. On the field this section shows "FMS Connected."
• Diagnostics — shows software versions and the four connection indicators: Enet Link, Robot Radio, Robot, and FMS. You can reboot the roboRIO or restart robot code here.
• Setup — enter your team number (this drives the mDNS/IP connection to the robot), choose the Dashboard Type, and enter game data for testing.
• USB Devices — lists connected controllers/joysticks with live axis/button/POV feedback; this is where you order and lock devices (next lesson).
• CAN/Power — shows CAN bus utilization and roboRIO faults for the rails — useful for diagnosing brownouts and wiring faults.
• Messages — the console: errors and prints from your code, WPILib, and the roboRIO.
• Charts — plots trip time, packet loss, battery voltage, and roboRIO CPU over time.

The controls that can save (or end) a match#

These keyboard shortcuts are part of every drive team's reflexes (per WPILib docs):

• Enable: the three keys above Enter on most keyboards ([, ], \). Disable: the Enter key. These shortcuts are ignored when connected to FMS — on the field, only the field enables/disables you.
• Emergency Stop (E-Stop): the Spacebar, which works regardless of which window has focus. After an E-Stop the roboRIO must be rebooted before the robot can be re-enabled — so it is a true last resort.
• F1: forces a Joystick refresh (rescan of USB devices).

Connection indicators are your dashboard#

Before every match the technician and operator should glance at the Diagnostics tab. Green Enet Link, Robot Radio, and Robot mean you're talking to the robot; a red indicator tells you exactly where the break is. Learning to read these instantly is the single most valuable troubleshooting skill on the drive team, because a robot that won't connect at the buzzer simply doesn't play.