Encoder Issues and Controller Question

[LukeS]

Originally Posted by TomH

Next, my Arduino controller question. Is it possible, or even legal, to make an Arduino controller to have a few buttons that do different things? I don't think we'd use this at all in competition , but it would be a cool experiment that we could do, and also show how custom controllers can be made. And is it possible to make a custom controller that the driver station can recognize, and further more even take commands from?

Some people are interpreting this as using only an Arduino; the rules say you can run (basically) any hardware you want, but it has to run the supplied Driver Station software, so you still need a Windows PC (or perhaps another OS running Wine, I haven't tried).

However, it is possible, just not legal. IIRC, there is an app for the iPhone/iPod to do this.

Now, I'm fairly certain that using an Arduino as a peripheral to a laptop is legal. However, I'd also advise that you check out the Cypress board that everyone uses; it's a pretty cool little board, similar to an Arduino. You can get the code for it from the WPILib project on FIRST Forge.