number of joysticks
 

looking through the rules, i didnt notice anything that mentioned the number of joysticks we are allowed to use... are we allowed to use more than 2 joysticks to control the robot? im assuming thats why we have 4 input ports, but i just wanted to make sure.

Re: number of joysticks
 

In previous years yes. I'm assuming the same is true this year.

Re: number of joysticks
 

I saw something on the FIRST Q & A about there not being a limit to what you can use, but since there are only 4 ports, you can only use up to four.

The only thing is, FIRST sent two right handed joysticks, which makes it odd for the driver...

Re: number of joysticks
 

In previous years, there were four input ports, also. However, I think two of them are "dummy" inputs. As in port 3 is the same as port 1 (same signals), and port 4 is the same as port 2 (same signals). Or maybe 1=4 and 2=3, not sure. Check the Programming Reference guide and the FRC2004 OI Reference Guide from IFI.

Re: number of joysticks
 

There are 16 analog inputs and 16 digital inputs so if you use y cable on your joystick ports you can have 8 joysticks that each have two buttons and two axises of movement or any combination of switches and axises. As far as I can tell according to the rules this year you can modify the joysticks as well if you need not make a custom joystick for something.

Re: number of joysticks
 

This isnt true. Some of the buttons are repeated as additional pins on other ports, but you can get actual input from 4 analog axes and 4 digital inputs on all ports. (Yielding 16 total analog; 16 total digital)