Joystick Exception?

[Blair Frank]

Question: Is it legal to use joysticks different from those supplied in the KOP? Since nobody makes serial joysticks anymore, and the only place to buy them is eBay, wouldn't that mean that they're not "Commonly available" to other teams? And I don't see any sort of exception in the "Operator Interface" section of the rules (or any other, for that matter) does that mean we're limited to USB joysticks or the serial joysticks from the KOP? Thanks in advance for your help!

-Blair

EDIT: What about other Joysticks from eBay? We're thinking of using two Flightsticks and one sidewinder.

[Ricky Q.]

See the Q&A, previous unmodified KOP CH Flightsticks are legal per <R28>

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread...ight=joysticks

[Blair Frank]

It seems that since the GDC Said:

Unmodified CH flight joysticks are allowed per <R28>.

(Emphasis Mine)

And <R28> States:

MECHANISMS from ROBOTS entered in previous FIRST competitions cannot be used.

(Caps theirs)

It seems that flightsticks we've used on our robots before aren't allowed. But my real question is: Can you buy things off of eBay, and is that allowed?

Thanks Again,
Blair

[jgannon]

I already yelled about the use of items that were previously COTS in this thread, so I won't do it again. In short, joysticks (and anything else) that used to be COTS and are still in vendor-delivered condition are indeed legal.