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Unread 04-05-2012, 00:10
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AKA: Samuel Lijin
FRC #0694 (StuyPulse)
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Join Date: Jan 2010
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Location: New York City
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Re: DRIVER STATION DESIGNS

Quote:
Originally Posted by cgmv123 View Post
I love the PID constants at the bottom.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV View Post
We painted it and wrapped the edges in gaffers tape to prevent any splinters.
Ours was made with 1/2" aluminum honeycomb, and had 1/2" aluminum C-channel press-fit onto the sides for that purpose.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexa Stott View Post
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.
Our personal preference is to slap down one long strip of Velcro down the length of the OI, then add additional, short strips where needed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi View Post
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?
As previously mentioned, it's the Cypress FIRSTtouch from the KoP. We designed and soldered a 6"x8" PCB that acted as a shield for the PSoC, to allow for easy replacement. We considered the CCI as an alternative, but decided that the lack of outputs on the CCI was too much of a disadvantage to use that instead. (Every arcade pushbutton corresponds to a given shooter setpoint, and lights up when that button is pushed to indicate the active setpoint.)

If need be, I can supply the circuit diagram for that box and/or pictures of the guts of that box.

As Joe mentioned, there have been serious issues with robustness with the PSoC in the past (the 2010 PSoC issues still give me nightmares), and there are cons against a custom OI. It becomes a troubleshooting point (using the DS I/O tab is the easiest way to check this), as well as that development and fabrication time takes away from practice time. On the flip side, it allows for continuity - 4 years later, 2, or even the next year, who's going to remember what the trigger on the operator stick did?

That being said, there are a lot of considerations that go into developing a custom OI box like ours. We were fortunate enough to get the plate done on a CNC router at our sponsor Cox and Co, but it would have taken infinitely longer (due to metric drill holes and non-circular holes, as well as precise dimensioning) to make the plate by hand in our lab.

Physically, you need to design it for serviceability, which is no simple task. Every connection between the PSoC interface circuit board and any button/switch on the OI (with some exceptions) consisted of a screw terminal connection on the shield end, and a quick disconnect on the button end, so there would never be a need to resolder if a button broke mid-competition. In the case of our auton selector switch (the black rotary switch at the center left), we soldered header pins to the shield and crimped a 1x5 .1" female header onto wires coming off solder joints, and used 1x3 .1" female headers (much like PWMs) on the potentiometers at the top. Wires were given extensive length so that the lid could be flipped over the back and allow one to inspect the shield and access it easily. We even kept an allen key in the box if we ever had to replace the switch that had a custom-made handle secured by set screws.

But even more important than serviceability is that it needs to be robust. If stuff keeps breaking when the OI gets jostled around, that's not a good OI - the point of an OI is to ease operation, not make you stop and troubleshoot it. We made liberal use of screw-down wire clamps so that wires didn't shift around inside the OI (which also helped minimize the rat's nest that the guts of such items usually become), and made sure to stress-relief everything that could come out - especially the USB cord going from the OI box to the DS.
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