Installing Alchemist

Alchemist can be downloaded at https://github.com/Redux-Robotics/Alchemist/releases for Windows (.exe), Mac OS X (.dmg), and Linux (.appimage) and can be run directly.

The current version of Alchemist is 2023.0.1.

Setting up the Redux CANLink server

In order for Alchemist to connect to a robot, a project with the the ReduxLib vendordep needs to be deployed, and the Redux CANLink server needs to be started. To start the CANLink server, either instantiate any device class in the robot code or add one of the relevant snippets below to the robot’s initialization code:

Java

// Include this import at the beginning of the file
import com.reduxrobotics.canand.CanandEventLoop;

//...

// This will start Redux CANLink manually for Java
CanandEventLoop.getInstance();

C++

// Include this header at the beginning of the file
#include <redux/canand/CanandEventLoop.h>

//...

// This will start Redux CANLink manually for C++
redux::canand::EnsureCANLinkServer();

On successful CANLink initialization, the message:

[redux-canlink] Redux CANLink has started on port 7244.

will appear in the RioLog on startup. Additionally, navigating to http://roborio-####-FRC.local:7244 where #### is replaced with your team number should display:

    ____           __              ____        __          __  _
   / __ \___  ____/ /_  ___  __   / __ \____  / /_  ____  / /_(_)_________
  / /_/ / _ \/ __  / / / / |/_/  / /_/ / __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __/ / ___/ ___/
 / _, _/  __/ /_/ / /_/ />  <   / _, _/ /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / /__(__  )
/_/ |_|\___/\__,_/\__,_/_/|_|  /_/ |_|\____/_.___/\____/\__/_/\___/____/

in your web browser.

Connecting to a robot

On first start, Alchemist will not have a default IP address set to connect to.

To connect to a robot’s CANLink server,

1. Navigate to the Settings tab in Alchemist

2. Enter either the appropriate team number or hostname under Enter IP Address or Team Number (such as 9999 or roboRIO-9999-FRC.local)

3. Click Connect to CANBus!

The UI should display Connected! on success.

For more details, see Connecting to a robot.

Changelog

2024.0.1

• UI Overhaul: Segmented devices into their own pages and cleaned up layout

• General stability and connection quality improvements

• Added helpful tips if Alchemist fails to connect

• Moved storage of downloaded/cached firmware to user AppData directory

• Improved CAN ID conflict detection

2023.0.1

Initial release.