pic: The new driver station
 

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

AFAIK, there are only two USB ports (the ones on the right). The two black ports on the left are Ethernet ports.

Edit: Oops, for some reason I thought they were using the B-type USB plugs when I saw this photo. There are indeed four regular (A-type) USB plugs. :o

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

It looks like there are two stacked on top of eachother to me.

EDIT: Here, it is very visible in this pic:
http://first.wpi.edu/driver_station_usb.jpg

~DtD
Blue Valley Robotics

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

I'd guess a Dashboard computer occupies the other Ethernet jack?

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

According to the FIRST rep during the mentor Q&A, you're allowed to use a laptop to hook into the driver's station during the match. Any joystick that the DS can't read, the laptop probably can read. I don't remember if he said it is in the current plan that the drivers are allowed to use the laptop directly though. The possibilities for driver control are almost endless...

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Gotta love Gameport to USB adapters.

It will take more than a new control system to make me give up my old 2 button CH Flightsticks.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

I couldn't agree more! :D

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

The rep told me the same thing, you could drive the robot with a laptop keyboard if you wish.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Now put a nerf gun on the thing and we'll get full keyboard and mouse support. That'll be fun :P

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

In all honesty, anyone who regularly plays a FPS on the PC would probably be able to do most, if not all, of the driving and control by his/herself.

I'm a fan of creating a custom GUI in Java that not only displays whatever feedback but also provides advanced situation-based options for robot control. Then the Java would output commands via ethernet to the controller. Using Java3D you could even integrate whatever animations you've made in 3dsMax or Autodesk into the GUI.

Or you could use Matlab toolboxes that dynamically calculate GA's or other such "AI" based upon sensor feedback and output new PID coefficients for whatever functions. After a couple of iterations, who knows, an AI may even be able to "learn" the different styles of each driver.

Bah, I'm just rambling. It's nice to have a vision though.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Wow... if the dashboard capabilities had enough throughput, mount a tri-axial turret on the top, with a camera on the end of it. basically turn the laptop into an FPS, mouse moves the turret in 2 axes, q and e in the 3rd axis, wasd to move the holonomic drivebase, and you feed the camera out onto the laptop screen... crosshairs in the middle of the screen, adjusted so that clicking the mouse fires a (ball, tshirt, whatever) perfectly for the crosshaired target... Cool.

EDIT: On second thought, your turret only needs 2 axes... though q and e could be used to rotate the drivebase.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Yeew, those header pins are nasty - can you say protective cover needed...
The USBs will also need some retention means to keep them in place when a robot hits the wall. All the talk of writing your own Java is great - except for the novice and other teams with little programming support. All in all, the FIRST hardware and software gets better each year, so no worries here.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

From what they said at the mentor info session, a dashboard computer can be connected via one of the USB ports, and there was a certain packet size that could be sent bidirectionally between the control station and the laptop.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Don't worry. There is a metal/ plastic cover in the works. Also, the header pins are going to be at a right angle to how they are now. This will allow connections to be made from the side instead of the top.

The lower of the two Ethernet ports is for connecting to a laptop dashboard. It can also be used to "daisychain" several Driver Stations together so they can use the same WAP. The USB ports are only inputs for joysticks/ wheels/ gamepads etc. I don't have any info about the amount of info available through the dashboard port however...

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but what would the pins allow you to do? What's the advantage to having them?

And happy for turning a bot into an FPS sim!

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

These pins allow teams to make their own custom buttons to control robot functions.

There are eight digital inputs, eight digital outputs, as well as four analog inputs.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

My god, that new driver station is... So, pretty...


Pretty...

Great info!

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Oh right, that makes sense. So this eliminates the need to making your own ghetto port or anything? What kinda of connection dealys are we gonna have to put together to put the switches/buttons/what-have-you onto the pins?

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Nothing special :) You can just use the same standard 3-pin connector used for PWM cables.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

That's what I figured, and those don't take that long to wire. So each connection needs the ground, the 5v supply and the signal. I'm slowly learning this stuff! Now if only I could program better... =P

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

If this really does cut down on my soldering of DB-15 connectors I will be very, very happy.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Couldn't agree more!

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

I love the possibilities the new control system offers us as drivers and operators. Also it seems that the coach will be able to monitor the robot's vitals during the match and relay them to the drive team. I think I'm gonna go Joystick shopping sometime soon for some cool ones. Maybe I'll get some of the retro-ish Flightsticks but, the new ones that are usb.

Possibly the thing I am most excited about is the ease of making custom controls with the easy pin-outs. I guess if anyone can fill all of the pins up they can get a gameport to usb converter and custom pin that.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

As opposed to 16 digital inputs, 16 analog inputs, and 8 LED digital outputs on the old system.

I like the ease of connectivity. I dislike losing so many OI I/O points - especially the digital inputs. This may limit what we can do on the button box. You can never have enough pushbuttons, rocker, and toggle switches. We often wire spares up to support future use applications developed as the season progresses.

Switching the joysticks over to USB will help offload some of what we used to wire to the digital and analog inputs, but I still feel we'll be a bit lacking for button box I/O.

However, perhaps we can use a laptop keyboard to take up the slack - who wants to create some custom keyboard overlays for FIRST robots? That would be kinda fun.

In the end, though, I'd rather just rely upon the simple pushbuttons and switches wired to the digital in's - tradition is a good thing, as Bill Gates may decide to intervene and not let us operate our "laptop button box". That would not be fun - Bad, Bill, bad!

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Awesome, looks very cool, hope it works as good, as it looks, because it looks very fancy.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

You could always pick up a gameport to USB converter at the RadioShack or simiar and use that to provide the additional inputs you want. The loss of LED outputs is harder to counter though... no more HUDs, I guess.

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

Presuming the hardware works as advertised out of the gate, with no flaky behaviour (Canadian in honour of 1114 celebratory week)....

I'm thinking I'll create a 15-pin D-SUB to PWM-style breakout harness for the analog ins just so I can still go old school in the event of any "newfangled geewhiz" USB flakiness. A tribute to the past.

No I'm not very trusting. Always have a backup plan....

I wonder how much current the 8 digital outputs can drive? What would you use them for otherwise?

Re: pic: The new driver station
 

I don't know about the digital outputs, but standard USB specifications state that each port must be capable of supporting at least 100 mA of current, with the option to sink as much as 500 mA. Any unused USB ports, with the addition of some transistors on the digital outputs, should provide enough power for other things.