The Field Management System (FMS) is the electronics core of a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) playing field and encompasses both hardware and software components. The software package is used to control all the field electronics (LED Displays, Station Control Cabinets, E-stops, enable/disable of the Robots, network security, etc.) and is used to manage the event by creating match schedules, scoring the matches in real-time, and posting information to the Audience screen. The FMS Off-Season version is designed to work without the full set of FRC field electronics, but retain much of the functionality that remains useful to events without FIRST hardware.

Additional information about the software can be found in the other articles of this documentation.

To run the Off-Season version the following minimum hardware items are required:

• Laptop or desktop computer with Ethernet Port
• WiFi Access Point (Linksys WRT610N or equivalent)
• Ethernet Switch (Unmanaged, 8 port, qty 3 recommended)

Other items, such as speakers or a projector, are recommended to supplement the user experience, but not required for basic functionality.

In order to install Off-Season FMS, the target machine must meet these minimum requirements:

• Operating System: Windows 10
• Processor Speed: 64 bit OS
• CPU: 2.0 GHz
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard drive: 1 GB free hard disk space
• Hardware: Ethernet and USB Port
• Resolution: 1280x1024 or higher for best visibility

If you wish to run the Audience Display in addition to the Off-Season FMS, on the same computer, the target machine will need a modern video card and the machine must allow for it to be used as an extended display. The resolution should be either 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 for the 16:9 Audience Display. For game sounds the target machine will need a sound card and, if desired, ability to output to a speaker system. The Audience Display can also be run on a separate machine, as long as they are on the same Ethernet network.

Do not install FMS Off-Season on top of a previous installation of the software. Due to annual changes in areas such as the database, it is safest to completely uninstall and remove any previous installations of FMS from your computer before installing a new version. For assistance in properly removing a previous version, please see this article.

IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended that you do not install FMS Off-Season on machines that are school or business “owned” or controlled, as they often include restrictive user accounts, additional firewall and security programs, etc, which are not tested by FIRST and may interfere with FMS’s ability to function properly.