A question of controls
 

I have a little time to build the robot controller and was wondering if anyone had ever hooked up a videogame controller to the OI.

In case you wonder, we will use it for the buttons on it, not actually driving.;)

Under my interpretation of the rules and the restricted hardware list, a gamepad controller would only be legal if it had a 15 pin connector on it.

Even if you don't use the interface at all, because it is off the shelf, it would have to have a 15 pin interface.

And you would not be allowed to modify it in any way, including cutting the cord because it would have more than three wires. That's my interpretation at least.

--Rob

under my interpretation of the rules, you could take wires that lead from one pin on the game controller and lead it into a new connector pin, kinda like the y-cable with the joysticks.

Yes, but it would need to be a 15-pin interface. See the restricted hardware list under "electronics". It specifically says "15 pin (not USB) PC interface, up to 6".

Also, gamepads would be questionable in general since they are not mentioned in the restricted parts list and are not available from DigiKey or Future; joysticks, pedals, and steering wheels are the only things allowed from a strict interpretation of the rules. My advice would be to ask FIRST ASAP.

Actually i just finished wiring up a large set of custom controls, so this is no longer much of an issue -- at least for our team.

but it would be kinda cool;)

I believe I saw a team using an old Nintendo Power Glove to control, at least part, of their robot.

:cool::cool::D

Oh, man. I remember those. I wanted one so badly when I was about six. I thought about using one for robot control two years ago, but we threw the idea out because of the weird NES connector (and a lack of practical usage).

we have been debating using the power glove for 2 years now... but alas we have never gotten around to doing anything with the idea...
last year we had a joystick that had USB and regular 15 pin cables on it...so we just ripped out all of the USB stuff and rewired the entire inards so basicly it was just a fancy encloser for the switches in it by the time we were done with it...every single function was rewired.

Now that i look back on it...that probably wasn't completely legal.