[Greg McKaskle]

I have seen it with other teams. Sometimes it is clearly the gamepad connector or cable. Other times it seems to be the laptop ports as gamepads fail there and not in other ports. Clearly you should avoid physical shock to cables and connectors. They can bend, they can break.

I have not confirmed, but some claim that static electricity can cause a joystick to drop out. So perhaps those fuzzy slippers aren't an ideal part of an FRC uniform.

Finally, modern laptops don't like to give their power to other devices. USB devices ask and the laptop giveth ... or not. Personally, I'd plug in the laptop, or make sure that your testing is also battery powered.

Greg McKaskle