Draft of integrating driver station best practices into zero-to-robot path

[stevep001]

I am thinking about integrating the driver station best practices into the zero-to-robot learning path. Before I get too far on this want to check to see if folks think this is a good idea.

[jasondaming]

Agreed on consulting with others as I know FIRST really likes to have tight control over what and how ZTR works/looks.

There is also likely a docs reorg coming up for 2027 so this change may get trampled in that.

[Kevin-OConnor]

I think the whole bottom chunk of the document is great for ZTR teams in terms of concisely expressing some best practices. My concern about putting the article as-is into the ZTR workflow would be that the whole chunk at the top about HW conflicts a bit with what is provided in the KoP. While I agree with pretty much all of these items as recommended items, the minimum viable requirements are substantially lower and I'm nervous about confusion with teams coming across the article and thinking that their KoP laptop won't work as a DS.

[stevep001]

One idea would be splitting the "selecting a driver station computer" and "setting up your driver station" into two different documents. We could put the second part in ZTR.

@Kevin-OConnor do you have a link to the rookie KoP contents? I searched "frc rookie kit of parts" and nothing relevant came up.

[Kevin-OConnor]

One idea would be splitting the "selecting a driver station computer" and "setting up your driver station" into two different documents. We could put the second part in ZTR.

Sure, that direction seems reasonable to me.

@Kevin-OConnor do you have a link to the rookie KoP contents? I searched "frc rookie kit of parts" and nothing relevant came up.

https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2025/KOP/2025KOPChecklist-GrayTote.pdf

Unfortunately the BestBuy business part number for the laptop doesn't seem to get you anywhere searching for it on the internet. The Mfgr PN for the machine from the 2025 kit is 9R336UA#ABA. Some or all 2026 kits will have a different machine, but we are trying to maintain similar performance specs.

[stevep001]

Found this using the model number in HP support: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/details/hp-14-d0000-laptop-pc-series/model/2100016893?sku=9R336UA

[stevep001]

Using another number from that support page leads to this at BBY: https://www.bestbuy.com/product/hp-14-laptop-intel-celeron-4gb-memory-128gb-emmc-jet-black/JJGP4GQ79P

Comparing the recommendations to that page, the meaningful differences are in storage (128GB) and resolution (1366x768). That storage is practically enough if you limit the use of the machine to a driver station, and the resolution just is what it is.

Note that there's already some potential for confusion, in that Computer Requirements for FIRST® Programs has a driver station laptop spec that's higher than the KoP laptop and the one discussed in the best practices document.

Back to the point of the original proposal, what I'm going to do is split the best practices into something like "Driver Station Hardware" and "Driver Station Setup".