View Full Version : Team 869's Custom Controller
We've never really done anything in terms of custom controllers. We did make a really cool board two years ago with strobes, cathodes, and diamond plate, but we've always used the old joysticks. This year I was going to do some work with the Chicklet, but got tired of waiting to be able to order it. I decided to make a custom controller for the secondary driver. Once we finished preping the aluminum box, we mounted a handle, db15 connector, fuse, and a molex connector, for cathodes. Ironically, the only colors we could find for cathodes this small were purple or green and we picked green. Our larger cathodes in the joystick box are blue, so it looks nice together. We just finished writing all of the code for this Monday night, but haven't gotten around to taking pictures.
Basically, there are four leds, two red and two green, which are used to display twelve different bot statuses. Then there is another blue led to show when a switch on the box is on. There is also an led built into the red safety switch and we have it wired to turn on when the switch is engaged. There are also bi-directional leds by the connectors (db15 and molex) to show that the polarity of the connection is right.
pheadxdll
24-02-2007, 21:23
Nice looking controller. I've got one of those switches with the red safety cover too. $5 at RadioShack- I just had to have one.
Are you planning to use that at competition because I'm pretty sure anything that's green is illegal to have. Last year we put lights in our OI and was told we had to turn them off.
From our experience with the joystick board, we found that we can't have cathodes on regardless of the color, they were blue, so we are going to leave the green cathodes off during the matches. Also, haveing them on could screw with the vision systems of the bots, so we wouldn't really want to use them during a match.
That safety switch must have been the most expensive thing in there (cathodes were donated), but it is just so cool. It really doesn't have much of a purpose either because it is just an overide.
I'll have to post pictures of our board along with the controller when I get back to school. The two together look pretty cool, kinda a cold metal look.
if your looking for cold cathodes. http://www.oznium.com/ they supplied FIRST with their cathodes and there the cheepest place i could find. like $6.50 for 2 x 12" CC's ive ordered some stuff from them and it worked fine.
/forest
Well for cold cathodes, we were able to get some donated by a car modification shop where a team member works. They are the tiniest cathodes I've ever seen. Like 6 inches in length with a half inch diameter.
The cool thing is that our cart had large cathodes on it, like 3 feet long, and it had some strobes. So, the cart, board and this would look really cool together, but this year we needed to build a new cart, so the cathodes went with it.
whytheheckme
25-02-2007, 09:57
I get all my cathodes and other lights from http://www.xoxide.com (under Computer Lighting on the left)
2 12" cold cathodes are 6 bux. They also have sound controllers (very cool...)
Just a little FYI
Jacob
Al Skierkiewicz
25-02-2007, 11:38
Jacob,
Just a heads up, the inspectors at your event will look very closely at your OI setup when going through inspection. External power will be one of the things that will have a much closer examination.
P.S. You did read the rule about shipping the OI with the robot right?
Al,
Actually, I wasn't aware that we need to ship the controller with the robot. I know we put the actual OI in the crate, so we currently have last year's on the board. I past years we always brought our controller because we either didn't want it to damage the robot (our controller weighs about 40 - 50 pounds). I'll look into it and see what type of issues we may run into.
Thanks for all of the cathode info. It is a bit too late for this year, but definatly something for next year.
Aidan F. Browne
25-02-2007, 12:24
Teams must include:
the Robot
the Operator Console
See section 8 for definition of Operator Console
If you use a computer as part of the Console, you do not have to ship the computer, but may not continue to program your dashboard
the two (2) Kit of Parts 12VDC batteries
OPERATOR CONSOLE – the Innovation First-provided Operator Interface unit and any associated equipment, control interfaces, display systems, structure, decorations, etc. used by the DRIVERS to operate the ROBOT.
'nuff said
hayakuneko
25-02-2007, 12:27
Al,
Actually, I wasn't aware that we need to ship the controller with the robot. I know we put the actual OI in the crate, so we currently have last year's on the board. I past years we always brought our controller because we either didn't want it to damage the robot (our controller weighs about 40 - 50 pounds). I'll look into it and see what type of issues we may run into.
Thanks for all of the cathode info. It is a bit too late for this year, but definatly something for next year.
whoa seriously?! your control board really weighs that much? how do you guys carry it around... i would think that control boards should be relatively light so its easier to carry... thats why i made this year's about 8lbs, but im not sure its exact weight cuz i fell asleep during the all nighter...
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/395965896_2bddceef06.jpg
it's the black one :D... the one behind it was last year's
Well, I suppose I'll pass this on to our engineers and mentors and see what they think we should do. I know the rules about programming and not doing it after build season, but the OI is new to me.
Thanks for the clarification.
whoa seriously?! your control board really weighs that much? how do you guys carry it around... i would think that control boards should be relatively light so its easier to carry... thats why i made this year's about 8lbs, but im not sure its exact weight cuz i fell asleep during the all nighter...
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/395965896_2bddceef06.jpg
it's the black one :D... the one behind it was last year's
That is a very nice board. We were thinking of doing something like that this year, but were short on time. The guys who built ours decided that style was better than practicality, so they built it our of 80/20 and covered that with diamond plate. Although this year it should be slightly lighter because we have eliminated two joysticks and replaced them with the box, but our drivers hate carrying it.
Dave Flowerday
25-02-2007, 12:39
Well, I suppose I'll pass this on to our engineers and mentors and see what they think we should do. I know the rules about programming and not doing it after competition, but the OI is new to me.
Ouch. This hurts. I would imagine that since you didn't ship your console and it is now illegal for you to bring it to competition you'll have to build a new one from scratch on Thursday at your first regional. Better ask some questions on the Q&A or contact FIRST and see what they say. Maybe they'll be lenient, but this rule is pretty clearly stated.
It really pays to read the manual cover-to-cover...
Well if we do have to rebuild, we can just use joysticks and a random piece of lexan for the board. It will look aboslutely hideous, but at least we can still compete.
nice: this is ours
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/img/c63/c6338692f5a2f3132885de2e6f696f5e_m.jpg
Al Skierkiewicz
25-02-2007, 21:12
Rohit,
I know that this will not be a problem during competition since you will be using an IFI radio for the OI but the radios actually have an internal antenna that runs down the left side of the modem in your picture. Mounting this against a metal panel usually has a detrimiental affect on RF. the same goes for the RC side as well.
hmm.. ok. I have no clue what that means :P but ill show your post to the electrical person
Dave Flowerday
27-02-2007, 19:06
hmm.. ok. I have no clue what that means :P but ill show your post to the electrical person
What he means is that you have your OI radio modem mounted to what appears to be a metal plate. This metal plate is in between the OI modem and the robot, and will interfere with the communication. What he's suggesting is that you mount the modem so that it's above the metal or otherwise unattached to it. The silver antenna on the outside of the modem isn't the only one - there's also one inside the black case which is why just having the external antenna above the metal plate isn't good enough.
Pavan Dave
27-02-2007, 23:56
That is a very nice board. We were thinking of doing something like that this year, but were short on time. The guys who built ours decided that style was better than practicality, so they built it our of 80/20 and covered that with diamond plate. Although this year it should be slightly lighter because we have eliminated two joysticks and replaced them with the box, but our drivers hate carrying it.
That is nothing. I will see if i can post a picture of my team's OI. It is built from ITEM and Lexan and weights from ten to twenty pounds. The drivers only saw ours for a brief period of time and started complaining lol. I just hope they don't drop it when they actually have to pick it up on game day.
Pavan.
Our contols were at one time too large to use on the field corectly, since there was not long enough cable between the zip ties and out competition port on the fields. We ended up haveing to remove 6" off each side to make it work. The box was so large it required a hing to make it easier to carry and wheels since it was 25 lbs. It was made out of item, and lexan with our joysticks top mounted, I will try to get a picture on her soon.
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