Where is the best place to start for absolute beginners?

[MAXOFLIFE]

Not really sure how unique our team's situation is, but we could use a lot of help. Last year for the competition a senior completed a majority of our team's work. There was a gap in the group making the team consist of mainly seniors and freshmen. This year, our team doesn't have much direction since everyone who knew what they were doing is long gone. We've already received all of the hardware and setup the LabVIEW software, and it's mainly my responsibilty to learn what we need to know to build a functioning robot. I don't expect anything amazing this year, but our team has to start somewhere.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to learning from the very basics? I downloaded the quickstart guide, but it doesn't include information about assembling the hardware. Any information helps!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I appreciate that someone out there is trying help kids like me join in the fun of robotics.

[MarkBalla-Tecnova · Accepted solution]

Here is a list of links that have LabVIEW Training videos. 

www.ni.com/frc

This is the main page for all things LabVIEW and roboRIO it contains

•     Latest updates and downloads 

     o     You can download and install LabVIEW on your home computer from here

     o     Download and install the “NI Software for FRC 2015” and “FRC 2015 Update Suite”

•     FRC LabVIEW Quick Start Guide

     o     Useful information for Setup and programming

•     NI FRC Discussion Forums

•   LabVIEW Training Videos

• NI RoboRIO information 

http://www.intelitek.com/roborio/

This is a new site I found Yesterday it contains RoboRIO and LabVIEW tutorials. 

http://www.frcmastery.com/

This is a favorite of mine. It is slightly out dated as it was produced in 2010 and 2011 but the concepts for FRC and LabVIEW are very well explained.

[JoeSuperNerd]

The links above are GREAT. Also, you might talk to your local FIRST Senior Mentor. Lots of times they can help. The FSMs can be found at http://www3.usfirst.org/community/volunteers/first-senior-mentor-program

If you're not sure, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help or find someone in your area to help (jvarnell@usfirst.org)

[Lemongrab]

Hello MAXOFLIFE,

In addition to the LabVIEW and FSM resources in the above posts, you may find the FIRST documentation getting started with the 2015 control system helpful. These documents include step by step instructions for setting up your robot hardware. You can find everything here:

http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/4485/m/13503

I think this is the absolute best starting point for a beginner team. Start with the first document and work your way down until you are familiar enough to start exploring on your own. And remember you have the FSM and Nation Instruments support teams available.