Sweet looking robot joystick.....
 

Check this out. An unmodified playstation 2 controller interfaced to a basic stamp 2. Hehehe. It is kind of hard to tell from that picture but I do believe that it looks intact and since the thing works on a basic stamp then you should be able to interfact it to an IFI controller right?? I love this magazine.:)

http://www.nutsvolts.com/toc_Pages/jun03toc.htm#

if i'm not mistaken, i believe that the next OI will indeed have two PSX ports, although I'm not sure if that information was ever supposed to be released, or if it's even true. i'm not sure if i would perfer that to what we have now, but i guess it'd be pretty cool. except that now i'd wiggle around while driving, cause of the whole "move the controller cause you think it's going to help turn the robot faster" thing. like when you play a racing game on your PS2/XBox/GC. yeah. we'll all be cool then... :p

That's hillarious, everyone does that! Some people really get into it too! Not only will people do that, you'll get an increase in people involuntarily throwing their controllers to the ground after a match.

'daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bulls'

it would even be better if it had the vibrating motors in the controllers to just like PS1

I believe that that controller should have the cibrating motors in it. Most of the SONY analog made controllers do.

It would be cool to drive a robot with a Play Station controller. You would probably see a lot of PS2 Addicts as drivers, lol.

Lots of things would be cool, but they only are cool if you actually do them.

Check out this webpage for more information on pinouts for popular gaming consoles, along with links to more Playstation info.

If you have any spare controllers lying around, it could be an awesome little project.

Honestly, I think it'd be sweet!

I know when we did our steering wheel for the robot, it was reall cool.

If our team does the PS2 or whatever controller this year, I'd be one up for driving for sure (I play my PS2 almost everyday for atleast 2 hrs., during the summer it's longer).

Re: Sweet looking robot joystick.....
 

Not quite, as the IFI Operator interface is what collects the data from the joysticks/potentiometers and buttons/switches, not the Basic Stamp itself. Nearly all modern video game controllers use a clock and a multiplexed system that sends several values along the same wire just at different times. You could possibly build a box to generate a clock and demultiplex this signal into several lines.

With a quick search on video game controller pin-outs I found this which lists the pin-outs for several older game systems.The ones listed below have non-multiplexed data-lines and would be simple to wire to the OI.
*Atari 2600
*Atari Enhanced
*Sega Genesis (note that only the B and C buttons can be detected each time the input is read, A and start are multiplexed with these two using pin 7 as a selector)
*Sega Master System
*TurboGrafx

It would be pretty cool to see a team use Atari controllers for the robot, although the digital rather than analog joysticks might make it hard to drive.

I can't wait until someone figures out how to hook up a "WASD" configuration and a mouse to drive. Gamers would be proud.

I really want to have the robot steered from your perspective instead of the robot's, much like a video game, but oh well....

Re: Re: Sweet looking robot joystick.....
 

I agree. No variable speed would make for a reckless and finesse lacking match. Although it would still be possible to use some kind of acceleration algorithm.

having vibrating controllers that shakes everytime you bumped into something would be awesome, and lots of work to do... It'd be cool if we see one this year!

Somebody should wire a DDR mat as a controller.:yikes:

No.

lol

Yes.

However, I don't mean to burst everyone's fun bubble... but I thought I remember rules not allowing us to use these types of input devices? I know there are some rules on what we can and can't use, they may change this year, but it's never a bad idea to check and see what was allowed in the past :yikes:

After a little searching, I found this rule, which states that we aren't technically allowed to modify the "The Operator Interface, Robot Controller, Servos, Speed Controllers, Relay Modules, Radio Modems, Batteries, Battery Charger, Power Supply, 9-pin cables, Maxi-style breaker panel, ATC breaker panel, circuit breakers, fuses, and joysticks". Also, this rule addresses custom control boxes. Without it, I don't think we'd be allowed to use any input devices except for the provided joysticks (uck).

The joystick ports each have a pin for +5VDC, fused at 1.25A, through F2. They state that "+5V Aux is to be used for potentiometers in Joysticks and custom I/O boxes" in the IFI OI Reference Guide, but that's not the official rulebook. I'm not sure how a FIRST representative or knowledgable volunteer inspector would react to a system that generates control signals. I'm thinking specifically of making an intermediary box to operate on actual driver input, and then output processed data to the OI. Anyone know of a precedent for this kind of thing?

In the past, the layman's translation of the FIRST ruling on things like this is that anything with a "brain" on the OI side is illegal...so, if you could find a way to interface one of these controllers(somehow) only putting wires between the original controller and the OI, then it would be legal based on how I've seen the rules interpreted in the past...

From what I remember, there was a topic about customizing robot controllers from about 5 months ago. The thing is that you would have to bust open the PS2/XBox/GCN/DDR controller and re-wire it so that it would work with the OI port. Plus, many controllers need power, and I don't think that the current OI allows for that, but hey, what do I know....

Well, team 5 used an old "Mad Cat" steering wheel, and FIRST allowed that.

Although, it MIGHT be different...but everything requires power really.

I remember Kingman (60) using a similar steering wheel on their 2002 robot. I specifically remember them saying that they had to take out all of it's 'guts' however, and do their own wiring for it :yikes:

A PS2 controller with the system would be awesome. What you could do is split the pins so that way you have each button contolling something. You could control the hole bot out of a single controller. Be great for practicing, just get the animation/ programming guys to make a "video game" version of it.

FIRST + PS2 controller = FIRST the video game, that would be awesome

Re: Sweet looking robot joystick.....
 

That magazine looks awesome. I know I just signed up for a free copy!

I like larger joysticks for robot control, though, I have trouble with delicate manuevers with those tiny sticks (lord knows my GTA3 game suffers accordingly)