DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

im working on redisigning our teams driver station, any thought on what worked or didnt, pictures would help?

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

Things to consider:
-Size. Make sure it's large enough for two people to comfortably stand next to each other, but small enough to be manageable and fit in the station (this past year it was a max of 44")
-Weight. When in queue, as well as the walk there and back, somebody's gotta hold this thing. Even if you plan to just put it on the robot cart, this year at some events one person from the drive team was asked to stand on the opposite side of the field from the robot and its cart.
-Carrying. Make it easy to carry.
-Robustness. Lesson learned this year: Don't trust four small pieces of hook-and-loop to secure your computer.
-Accessibility. You may need to plug/unplug/reconfigure quickly. Make everything accessible.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

Here's a major component of our OI. The drivetrain was controlled with joysticks, and stingers/shooter/etc controlled with this. I personally like making our own box, because it allows us to make more ergonomic design configurations than joysticks allow.

The buttons on the right set the speed of our shooter. The big red button on the left runs our automatic shooting routine, the covered switch above that deploys our stingers, and the toggle lever in the middle controls our acquirer. There's also a thumbwheel switch on this box that allows us to select what autonomous routine we want to run.

If anything, this can get a little too bulky to carry, but I had so much fun working on its design that it didn't bother me as much as it bothers others, and as the driver I carried it around the most :D

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

This is what the NERDS came up with this year. Has a handle to carry it, it's not too big, the gamepad comes out so the driver is connected by a cable and can move around, it has the battery charger built in, and it's only slightly difficult to connect the cables. And it rests on the robot and cart when not in use. The hook and loop connecting the computer to the plywood is large and strong.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

We redesigned ours this year with some smoked Lexan and 80/20. It has two game controllers and the laptop. Its lightweight and small making it easy to manage both on and off the field. Also were were able to brand it everywhere since we got our laser engraver to do vinyl this year.:) If you have any questions let me know pictures are attached.

https://mail-attachment.googleuserco...eVdKe0X7uMEyco
https://mail-attachment.googleuserco...NTgDSrl4uFYQEo
https://mail-attachment.googleuserco...o_h3Q8z555cIpg

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

What did you use to connect all your switches and buttons? Was it a custom board that all went to 1 usb connected to the driver station laptop or did you use a COTS board?

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

links dont work :(

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

Okay, so here's our driver's station. IMHO, it's really pretty and functions well. It got made several years ago by my sister and one of our alumna/mentors. It's basically a metal frame with 1/4 inch thick acrylic for face plates with cutouts for handles, 4 joysticks, and the classmate. One of the joysticks has been replaced with "peef" a box of buttons with LEDs that we made. The classmate velcros in. It's not too heavy, and we've attached straps for carrying! Unfortunately, with the new DS measurements this year, we had to have 2 inches sawed off one end at our first regional, but you could design around that since you know... >.>
http://www.team2399.org/?attachment_id=654
we CNCed it i believe, so perhaps you wouldn't want to use acrylic if you're putting on together by hand. or maybe not use acrylic in general, because it can shatter, but we haven't had any problems with that so far.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

We made an extremely cheap driver station out of a piece of 1/2" plywood. We painted it and wrapped the edges in gaffers tape to prevent any splinters. Than we just dual locked (the stuff the use for Lego League tables) our joysticks, laptop and control panel to that. It's really light weight. The only thing missing is an easy handle, we will fix that soon.

If you want to know more about how we setup the control panel, we made a white paper a little while ago.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2666

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

It really depends on what your robot "requires" to operate it each year. Some teams use two joysticks while others use one for the drive base. Then it depends if you need a button box and/or joystick for your operator.

Then there are teams who just use xbox controllers and need very little of an "actual" controls board.

Whatever you end up doing, make sure you secure everything you put on there. I've seen teams not even bother to screw the joysticks into their board so they just slide off as they're carrying them. It makes me cringe every time. That's a great way to break a joystick.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

Seconded. You never know if we might get another game wherein robots frequently hit the far field wall at max speed during autonomous and knock unsecured controllers off the counter ::ouch::. (Overdrive reference)

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

I believe it was the former but I'm not involved in the electrical stuff but our main guy for electronics is on CD so I'll be sure he responds.

I personally do not like the custom boards because it isn't worth the added complication, we have had problems in the past with these breaking and then having issues we think are robot issues that aren't. Also if you just have a gamepad or joystick your driver can start getting used to it from day 1. In the last 4 years we have made our own boards and 2 of those years we ended up essentially not using the boards. 1 year because the board broke every other match and the other year because the "ergonomically correct" board was way less natural than a joystick and a bunch of driver practice was wasted as a result.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

since our drivers station only required two joysticks (one for each driver). we put one on each side of the laptop. the joysticks and the laptop were on one 42'' by 12'' (roughly) sheet of carbon fiber which made it light and easy to carry.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

That's the reason for velcro.

Also, in 07 (teams drove into the walls to knock down tubes) or 08, I think FIRST actually made it clear that you could step over the line in auto if your control board got knocked off by a robot ramming into the wall.

Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS
 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...426_161803.jpg

We came up with a new driver station between competitions, to remedy trying to not drop everything while it's falling out of my arms. We designed this out of 1/16" 5052 aluminum, anodized black. It consists of 2 parts, one is the part that you see holds everything and bends down in front with "gunnrobotics" laser cut out. The other piece slides in, turning the long, essentially U shaped piece into a tube, which really helps with stiffness. I was worried about it bending or breaking until we riveted that piece in. We made it so tall (4" or so) because that joystick on the left actually sticks down about 3.75" and we needed to support it somehow.

I can post the CAD and/or a few more pictures if anyone wants them.