Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuog
For those who feel that the wheel will not give the same control options, I would have to say you are thinking too much inside the Joystick. The wheel can give you differences in control from only one or two pwm to 0 on one side and 254 on the other. Therefore any combination in between is possible with some rotation of the wheel.
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Further supporting the wheel ..
Think of the range of motion you have with a joy stick. 90 degrees, at best. With a steering wheel, you have over 200 degrees of control (if not more, depending on your wheel). This was the argument supporting the wheel presented to us by a mentor from Team 60 (after 60/254's extremely successful 2004 season).
It is MUCH easier for students to learn how to drive the wheel than with (a) stick(s). And that's not limited to students, if you have a sponser, little kid, future team member, etc .. driving, it's much easier for them to get a feel of it without crashing into something or someone.
With that said, 1388 has used a wheel in 2005 and 2006. In fact, we already have our wheel for 2007. It's a Saitek R80, and we've got all 3 of ours new off ebay for less than $15 each. There are plenty of USB wheels out there, and if you have a rich team that wants a pretty wheel, then consider the new IFI USB dongle for the OI.
There is some fine tuning on the driving code needed for the wheel. There is also a lot of room for improvement. We have added features into our wheel code that allows for much easier turning (pretty much turning in place). There is also a switch on our 2006 control box, that lets you jump from a wheel/joystick combination to a single stick for driving.