Installing Tools

This section will walk you through installing the tools necessary to use the tutorials on this site. Note that these instructions are for Windows installations only.

Install Java jdk

The first step is to install the Java jdk 11 which can be found here:

https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk11-downloads.html

Download and install the Windows x64 Installer.

Install VS Code

If you have the version of Visual Studio Code that you use to program your FRC robot, you can use that to program the Minibots. Otherwise you will need to install Visual Studio Code for Java which can be found here:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/java

Robot Tools

The remaining robot tools can be found here: https://github.com/Paradox2102/RobotTools2025.

Creating a Raspberry Pi Image

The Raspberry Pi image that you will need can be found here. Flash this image onto an SD card that is at least 8GB. Then boot your Raspberry Pi from the image.

The Raspberry Pi will show up as a WiFi hotspot named SwerveBot. Connect to that and then open a secure shell by typing:

The password is ‘raspberry‘ (without the quotes).

The first thing you want to do is to expand the file system to match the size of the SD card that you chose. Do this by entering the following command on the Raspberry Pi command prompt:

Then reboot your Pi by typing:

You will then probably want to change the SSID of the hotspot so that all of your robots use a different ID. To do that, connect back to the PI with a secure shell and type:

This should open the following window:

Press Enter and you should get the following window:

Cursor down to the SwerveBot entry and press Enter. You should then get the following:

Cursor down to the SSID field and change the SSID to whatever you want:

Then cursor all the way to the bottom, choose the OK option and press Enter.

Then tab over to the Back button and press Enter

Finally cursor down to the Quit option and press Enter.

Then reboot your Pi and it should come as the newly named hotspot.

You are now ready to follow the instructions in the Minibot and/or SwerveBot tutorials to create and run your own robot programs.