Driver Station

Tutorial

Provided to you by BXD

This is a step by step process in order to get the 2016 NI Driver Station for First Robotics to work directly with our simulator. WARNING: The process is different for the different versions of windows so please pay close attention to the version details.

To begin, run the 2016 NI DriverStation Software. (If you do not have it installed, you can find a tutorial on how to download it if you google “Installing the FRC 2016 Update Suite.”) In the DriverStation, set the team number to your team number. Make sure to use the same team number throughout the entire process.

Now open the Device Manager by looking up “Device Manager” in the start menu.

Select the computer name, then find the dropdown button labeled “Action” in the menu bar and click on “Add legacy hardware.”

This will open a new window. Click “Next.”

Select “Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)” option. Then click “Next.”

Scroll down and select “Network Adapters,” then click “Next.”

Select “Microsoft” in the left column. For Windows 7 (first picture), scroll down and select “Microsoft Loopback Adapter” in the left column. For Windows 8 or above (second picture), scroll down and select “Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter” in the left column. Then click “Next.”

Click “Next.”

Click “Finish.” You can now exit out of the Device Manager as well.

Open the Network and Sharing Center by looking up “Network” in the start menu.

Click on “Change adapter settings” in the top left corner.

Find the adapter that’s listed as a “Microsoft Loopback Adapter” for Windows 7 (first picture), or “Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter” for Windows 8 and above (second picture) and record the name. In our case, it would be “Local Area Connection 2” (Windows 7), and “Ethernet 2” (windows 8 and above).

Now open up your file explorer. Go to “Program Files (x86)” “Autodesk” “Synthesis” “SynthesisDrive” and run the “SythesisDriver.exe” executable.

Now before you can run your robot code, you must configure you loopback adapter. Do this by going to “File,” in the menu bar, and selecting “Setup Loopback Adapter.”

In the first window that shows up, enter the name of the adapter you previously recorded and click “OK.”

In the second window, enter the same number you put into the DriverStation.

Click “OK.”

To locate your robot code, either type in the full path to your robot executable in the text box at the bottom, or navigate to it by clicking “File” “Load from Executable.” From this screen, navigate and select your robot code.

Click “Start.”

Now just plug in your joysticks and start up the simulator!