Prerequisites

Five programs, plus one you can skip until Workshop 6. Nothing here depends on anything else being installed first. One rule: never install Java on its own, because WPILib brings the version this workshop runs on.

1. WPILib 2027 alpha 6. Take v2027.0.0-alpha-6 from the releases page, not the install guide. The guide still points at last season, because nothing about 2027 is official yet. The installer lays down a separate copy of VS Code and a Java 25 runtime of its own.
2. FRC Driver Station. This is the new Driver Station tool, which replaces the old Game Tools download.
3. Phoenix Tuner X. From the Microsoft Store, so it keeps itself current. Tuner X configures and tunes TalonFX and the rest of the CTRE hardware, and all of Workshop 1 happens inside it.
4. AdvantageScope. A cut-down copy already came with WPILib. Install the full release from GitHub as well. It reads robot logs, and Workshop 6 leans on the plots.
5. Git. Any current version. Workshop 3 generates its own project rather than cloning one. The lesson repositories after it are clones, and every change you make is a commit.
6. Elastic Dashboard (optional). Skip it for now. A dashboard reads NetworkTables, WPILib's shared table of live robot values, and Workshop 1 runs no robot code. Install it when you reach Logging in Workshop 6.

Workshop 1 will be run fully inside Tuner X. It owns the CANivore, sends every control request, and plots the response off the real motor.

You find each motor and check which way it turns on Motor Setup, then tune it against how it behaves on PID Tuning.

• The assembled mechanism. The arm or the flywheel from Mechanism CAD, built and wired. Its bill of materials is the exact parts list, down to the battery cable and the CAN terminating resistor. A mechanism off an old robot works too, as long as it runs the hardware below.
• A Kraken X44. The motor Tuner X drives. Its TalonFX controller sits inside the case, so there is no separate controller to wire.
• A CANcoder.The WCP ThroughBore encoder is a CANcoder inside, so the code calls it one. It reports the arm's real angle and keeps that angle through a power cycle. The arm build uses one; the flywheel build does not.
• A CANivore. Plugs into a USB port and runs the CAN bus the motor and encoder sit on. Name yours canivore so Workshop 3 can reuse the same hardware handoff.
• A charged battery and its cable. A fresh one gives about 12 V. Bench tests on Motor Setup run at 6 V, but the motor still needs a real battery behind it.

You do not need a SystemCore, a radio, or a robot. The whole rig is a laptop with a CANivore plugged into it, sitting next to one mechanism on a table. Workshop 3 adds an Xbox-style controller, and Workshop 4 moves to a swerve drivetrain.

Open all five programs once before you leave this page. An installer that failed quietly is far easier to find now than later, with the arm wired up and the meeting half over.

Next is Hardware Setup, where you plug the CANivore in and find every device in Tuner X.