070 lesson: read the buttons¶

Read the A button, say the moment it goes down and the moment it comes up, and read both sticks sideways. The robot drives as it did in L060 the whole time.

Before you start.

L060 is done, so mytry holds L060ShapingOpMode.
AdvantageScope is installed on the same laptop, and a gamepad is plugged into the laptop.
The robot and the Driver Station for the last step.

the steps¶

L070S010: copy the starter into mytry¶

Copy. In lessons, click L070ButtonsOpMode once and copy it. Click mytry once and paste. In the Copy Class box, click OK. If Android Studio asks whether to add the file to Git, click Add.

Check.

mytry holds L070ButtonsOpMode, and the new file is open.

L070S020: switch your copy on¶

Change. Delete the line @Disabled, under the comment that names this step.

Check.

Under the step’s comment, the next line reads // 'public' so the robot can run this OpMode. 'public' allows access from any code.

L070S030: read the A button¶

A stick is a number. A button is only down or up, so Java keeps it as a boolean: true when it is down, false when it is up.

Change. In driveFromTheSticks(), find the comment that names this step, below the four setPower lines. Under it, type boolean buttonA = gamepad1.a. The list offers a, marked boolean.

Pick a, and finish the lines:

        // When on L070S030, see
        // https://msb-stitt.github.io/ftc31459-26-27-biobuzz/guide/tasks/l070.html#l070s030
        // for what to do here.
        boolean buttonA = gamepad1.a;
        Tracker.publish("button/a", buttonA);

Simulator. In the Terminal, run:

./gradlew :TeamCode:simRun --args="mytry.L070ButtonsOpMode --pad"

AdvantageScope. Connect to the simulator as in L020. Open the button folder, and drag a into Discrete Fields.

Check.

button/a is a red dot.
Press A and hold it, and the dot turns green.
Let go, and it turns red again.

L070S040: remember last loop’s button¶

buttonA says whether A is down in this loop. To know the moment it changed, the code also needs to know whether it was down in the loop before. A variable made inside driveFromTheSticks() is gone when it ends, so this one goes outside it.

Change. Press Ctrl+C in the Terminal to stop the simulator. Scroll to the top of the class, and find the comment that names this step. Under it, type:

    // When on L070S040, see
    // https://msb-stitt.github.io/ftc31459-26-27-biobuzz/guide/tasks/l070.html#l070s040
    // for what to do here.
    boolean previousButtonA;

A variable made here is a field. It keeps its value from one loop to the next. A boolean field starts out false.

Check.

The line has no red underline.

L070S050: say when the button changes¶

Change. Back in driveFromTheSticks(), find the comment that names this step. Under it, type:

        // When on L070S050, see
        // https://msb-stitt.github.io/ftc31459-26-27-biobuzz/guide/tasks/l070.html#l070s050
        // for what to do here.
        if (buttonA != previousButtonA) {
            if (buttonA) {
                Tracker.publish("button/event", "A pressed");
            } else {
                Tracker.publish("button/event", "A released");
            }
        }
        previousButtonA = buttonA;

!= means “is not the same as”. The first if is true only on the loop where the button changed. The second one says which way it changed. else is what runs when the if is false. The last line saves this loop’s button for the next loop.

The text in quotes is a String. Tracker writes it down the same way it writes a number.

Simulator. Run the same command again, and connect AdvantageScope.

AdvantageScope. Drag event from the button folder into Discrete Fields. Until A has been pressed once, event is crossed out, because nothing has been written to it yet.

Holding A down does not write A pressed again. event only changes on the loop the button changed.

Check.

Press A and hold it. button/a turns into a green dot, and event reads A pressed.
Let go. The dot turns red, and event reads A released.

L070S060: read the sticks sideways¶

Each stick also moves left and right. Pushed right, it reads above 0.0. Pushed left, it reads below 0.0. Tank drive does not use these yet. Later lessons drive sideways with them.

Change. Press Ctrl+C in the Terminal to stop the simulator. Near the top of driveFromTheSticks(), find the comment that names this step, under the lines that read the sticks up and down. Under it, type:

        // When on L070S060, see
        // https://msb-stitt.github.io/ftc31459-26-27-biobuzz/guide/tasks/l070.html#l070s060
        // for what to do here.
        double leftStickX = gamepad1.left_stick_x;
        Tracker.publish("stick/leftX", leftStickX);
        double rightStickX = gamepad1.right_stick_x;
        Tracker.publish("stick/rightX", rightStickX);

Simulator. Run the same command again, and connect AdvantageScope.

Check.

Push the left stick to the right, and stick/leftX goes above 0.0.
Push the right stick to the left, and stick/rightX goes below 0.0.
speed and power stay at 0.0, and the robot does not move.

L070S070: watch the buttons on the robot¶

Robot. Stop the simulator. Send the code, run L070 Buttons from the Driver Station, and watch it in AdvantageScope.

Check.

Press A, and in AdvantageScope button/event reads A pressed.
Let go, and it reads A released.
The robot still drives with the sticks as it did in L060.

No gamepad. --args="mytry.L070ButtonsOpMode --a=true" holds A down for the whole run, so event reads A pressed and never changes; the picture at the top was taken that way. A release needs a gamepad. --left_stick_x=0.5 --right_stick_x=-0.25 holds the sticks sideways for the last picture. The tests press and let go of A without a gamepad.

If it didn’t, and event reads A pressed but never A released, the last line, previousButtonA = buttonA;, is missing. The test fails with letting go says so.

If it didn’t, and event reads A pressed when A is let go, the two Tracker.publish lines are swapped.

What you just did. A boolean is either true or false. A field keeps a value between loops, and comparing this loop with the last one finds the moment something changed. That is how a button press can do one thing once, rather than once every loop it is held.

Where next. L080 drives the robot with one stick for going and one for turning.