Control Board of Duct Tape Awesomeness!!

[Carter12s]

Hey this year we decided on a pretty cool way to make our control board. We hollowed out a piece of foam insulation and embedded all of the wires and systems into the board. The we wrapped it in duct tape to give it that nice homey look. The whole system is extremely light and strong. The cypress DIO board from last years KOP was hooked up to 8 DIO switches and we are running to Xbox 360 controllers.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/182685_174233352623504_143516375695202_375725_3846 51_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181937_174233405956832_143516375695202_375726_5119 346_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/180849_174233422623497_143516375695202_375727_7130 087_n.jpg

[gblake]

Have fun, but just remember to always think about the consequences of a fire when building electrical devices.

There is a reason why halogen free insulation is required on some electrical circuits.

Blake

[WizenedEE]

Digital input OUTPUT switches? Wow, those are pretty cool :p

The board looks nice though. What are the switches used for? They can't really do much since they're all covered up. Are they just for settings and such?

Our operator console will have a total of 17 IO things; 4 analog inputs, 3 digital outputs, and 10 digital inputs. Unfortunately, nobody has gotten around to actually making the stupid thing.

Is attaching the classmate with velcro secure enough to carry it sideways do you think? Zipties give it a weird feel, but we might be able to use fabric.

Good luck with that!

[foozie]

Is attaching the classmate with velcro secure enough to carry it sideways do you think? Zipties give it a weird feel, but we might be able to use fabric.

Good luck with that!

1124 uses velcro to secure our classmate and it's never failed us. You just have to have enough. ;)

[Carter12s]

Velcro Definitely is strong enough to hold the classmate; the whole thing feels very sturdy.

Right now the switches are set to do a variety of things:

1. Inverts the controls for first driver so that when the bot is driven backwards everything is in perspective, we are not sure if we will use this yet.

2. Inverts the controls for the shoulder motor.

3. Inverts the controls for the wrist motor.

4. Inverts the controls for the hand.

5. This switch tells the autonomous code whether it should head right or left at a "Y".

6. This switch is very special. It is set up so that when it is toggled it decrements the target distance for autonomous. Every time the switch changes state the distance that the autonomous code drives forward is decreased by .1 feet.

7. This switch operates the same as 6, except it increments the target distance variable.

8. This switch changes the sensitivity of two joysticks to give fine control or coarse control.

If I had more switches I would use them, but at the time I was really tired of soldering and thought that eight was enough. :)

All of the switches have a corresponding display on the dashboard, as well as showing a user message in the FRC Driverstation. The code which operates the switches occurs in periodic tasks zones so it operates as long as our bot is connected. The switches are designed to be set during testing and left in position during the match. The whole system makes troubleshooting the robot much easier! Hope you like it!:)

[Peyton Yeung]

Team 45's driver station in a tri-folding sheet of wood with 3 joysticks and a cypress board attached to 8 digital inputs for arm heights.