Driver station...

[the man]

Hey im from team 2645 and we were wondering if any one had some good realistic ideas for driverstations.

[EricH]

What do you mean by driver's station?

a) the electronics
b) the place to put them at the field
c) some form of mounting board to help place a) on b)

If you're thinking of option c), then your best bet is to have some form of board that is light and easy to carry. I've seen some in cases (pictures can be found in CD-Media), some with handles for ease of carrying, and some that are just boards with electronics on top of them. You want them light, strong, and not terribly long if you can avoid it. And, assuming that the Velcro is still in place this year, plan to put a long piece of Velcro on the bottom to help it stay up.

If you're thinking of option b), then you need to look at the Field section of the Manual on Saturday.

If you're thinking of option a), there are pictures on Bill's Blog from a few months ago.

[the man]

Option C

But I was more looking for a way to either make it shorter or fold it up some how.

[Rion Atkinson]

This year we had to create a quick one using a small peice of sheet metal we had. (6" x 6") A student created duck tape holders to hold everything in place, excepth the DS which was velcroed down. When we got to the field we removed the controllers and just set them on the shelf.

It was light and compact.

-Rion

[EricH]

Originally Posted by the man

Option C

But I was more looking for a way to either make it shorter or fold it up some how.

Some teams (1726, 148, and 1538 come to mind) have managed to get the whole thing into a smallish case, like you might store a handgun in. It is also possible (depending on your setup, of course) to have it fold in two places, forming a single smaller, thicker unit to carry. Some teams have simply put wheels on one end and a handle on the other.

Of course, there is always the best option: don't put more stuff on there than you really need, and plan it out to take the minimum amount of space without affecting your drivers.

[Trent B]

2502s was on a probably 5' long 12" wide piece of 3/4 or 1" pine.... that was a mistake I don't wish to revisit. Even with handles it was painful and awkward to carry.

KISS comes in here.

This year I think I might make it out of 1x1 8020 with lexan or something set in the slot and put on two hinges so it can fold up into a compact cube like solution.

[hg273]

1540 built one out of 1x1 80/20, with a ABS plastic in between. All the components then velcro on. The cool thing about it, is that we've built a slot on our robot cart for it. We push it, with the robot secured, to the match, two team members take the robot, and the other goes and sets up the drivers station. It may be different this year, however, seeing as we'll have laptops.

[fuzzy1718]

It really depends on your controls setup. My team has done it where we have just a log board type thing with either wheels a handle or straps; this is recomended if you are using joysticks. We also have done one that folded in two places to make a U; the only problem with this is when you fold it up while the robot is on, the robot will take off... it happened like 3 times for us. If your using game pads then all you really need is a board that the computer attaches to and 4 notches to wind the controllers up on.

[Alexis Howell]

Lexan works really well for this. We've got a case with a foam lining that we cut to fit in the driver control station and the wires.

But this year, I've heard that the drivers station is changing... I've heard that we're going to be using those $100 laptops that you buy for children in developing countries.

[Nick Lawrence]

This past year I was given the job of designing and building our operator panel. They requested I use carbon fiber, to match our robot's electronics panel, and for it's strength.

I decided to use some 20MM Bosch Extrusion for the main frame of the panel.

All we had on our board was the Drivers Station box, one Attack 3 joystick, and a place to hold a Logitech Gamepad when not in use.

It came out really small, light, and compact.

Here is a picture of it. Albeit not the greatest picture, you get the idea.

-Nick

[Jeff 801]

Team 801 made a nice one over the past season

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33955

[Rion Atkinson]

Originally Posted by Jeff 801

Team 801 made a nice one over the past season

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33955

That's an under statement... that thing is awesome!

I'm hoping that my team will be able to make a nice one this year. By all means. Keep posting pictures guys.

[Trent B]

Our cart is going to be our first robot converted to a cart this year (it was crippled due to weight limitations and is built like a tank so we are going to just put some plywood on top and add an 8020 handle.

I am aiming for a drivers station this year that we can set on top of the handle and secure with webbing with a hole in it over a bolt (think a guitar strap, have a bolt on the board and run webbing from the underside of the handle to pull around and slide over the bolt.