Ok well questions ARE good, so don't stop asking them... BUT this thread is about extra inputs. We just got through that, so I have some insight that might be useful...
I see 4 ways to do what you need to do:
1) The "Cheap" way, but you may consider it the best. Ive been doing this for a long time so I would detest my team doing it. Basically you put a second joystick on port 2 and use those buttons.
2) This is a little more difficult. If its just one pneumatic piston, I'm assuming its on a double solenoid valve. That means you only need one or two buttons, depending on how the programing is written. You could go to radioshack and buy two (or one) NO (normally open) pushbutton switches for less then $2. If you don't like buttons you could do the whole thing with one STSP toggle switch (i.e. a "1" is up and a "0" is down"). Then you get a small plastic enclosure for another $2. A male DB15 connector (for use with cable) or female DB15 connector (no cable) runs for less then a buck. Finally, make sure you have rosin-core solder and a pencil iron (>30W is a GOOD thing). The whole thing will take about 2 hours to assemble with no experience, or about 15 minutes if you know what your doing. The whole apparatus plugs into PORT2.
3) This is similar to solution #2, but a little more complicated. BY SPEC, a standard joystick port has 2 sets of x and y, and 4 buttons. In the (crummy) joysticks that FIRST provides us with, they use X1 and Y1 in the handle, and Y2 on the wheel (might wanna check me on that, I'm doing this from memory). They use buttons 1 and 2. That leaves open X2, button 3 and button 4 for your use. Theres a couple of problems with this, however. The cable that comes with the stick has only the pins (and wires) that they use, which would mean you would have to put on a new cord. Second, it is not clearly documented how to get to buttons 3 and 4 from the RC code; I think that it is AUX1 and AUX2, but I could be wrong. And finally, you have to be pretty good at taking stuff apart (experience DOES matter) because theres a lot of flimsy stuff in there and is VERY easy to mess up. Well actually I take that back, its a well build joystick, and with the relatively open construction it has been one of the easiest mods Ive ever done...
4) This is going to be the fastest, and if you look in the right place, the cheapest. BUY A DIFFERENT JOYSTICK!
Well that sums that up. You probably aren't going to use #2 or #3 but hopefully someone else will find this thread useful; as I put almost as much work into the descriptions as I did the mods... ; )
If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me at
theshadow2754@hotmail.com
thanks, Jacob