This page contains random information about Robolab.

• Use the spacebar to toggle between the wire tool and the pointer tool.
• Use the tab key to toggle between the text, wire, and pointer tools.
• Single click with the pointer tool to select a single wire segment.
• Double click to select the entire wire from source to destination.
• Triple click to select an entire tree (single source to many destinations).
• Version 2.5.1 with patches provides generic sensor adapters for powered and unpowered sensors. Using an unpowered sensor adapter with the light sensor has it report light values without turning on the illuminating LED. This can be useful when you want ambient light values. The values that are returned are now in the range of 0 to 1023 not 1 to 100.
• Creation of sub-vi. A popular series of commands in Robolab is to turn on motors A and C for a given time and then turn them off. Duplicating these instructions many times in a program can clutter a program and make it more difficult to understand. Robolab provides a mechanism to combine a series of instructions and represent them with one new icon. The combined icon is called a sub-vi.
• A sub-vi is not a classic subroutine. The instructions are not stored once in the RCX and used as needed. Rather the instructions represented by the sub-vi are expanded each time it is used in the main program. In 'C' this is comperable to a #define macro.
• A sub-vi can have arguments. In the case above, you may want to drive forward for different amounts of time. You can create a sub-vi that will allow you to wire in a numeric constant that defines the time you want to run the motors.
• Getting tired of adjusting a constant (like a rotation sensor distance) by repetatively changing its value, downloading, and testing? A way aroung this time waster is to use the "Interrogate RCX" feature of RoboLab. First replace the constant with the "Value of Red Container" icon. You will find this on the Modifiers pallete. Now download the program. Make sure your RCX is on and in view of the tower. From Robolab click on "Interrogate RCX" on the Projects menu. A new window will pop up with a status of the RCX. Click on "other" and the red container will display. Type in your best guess for the value and wait a second for the value to be send to the RCX. Now run the robot. Adjust the value of the red container using the "Interrogate RCX" feature till you get it right. Now you can go back to the program and change the red container back to the constant you just found. Advance the red container to the next constant in your mission program and do again. In short order you can tune a mission!