DRIVER STATION DESIGNS

[Alexa Stott]

I also recommend that all teams use the pigtail! It's easier to get a new pigtail than it is to fix/replace a broken ethernet port on your DS laptop.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Alexa Stott

I also recommend that all teams use the pigtail! It's easier to get a new pigtail than it is to fix/replace a broken ethernet port on your DS laptop.

SECONDED

[z_beeblebrox]

At our first regional, we took a piece of Lexan and velcroed our laptop and joysticks to it. By our second regional we had switched to two logitech gamepads, which both our programming team (me) and our drive team liked much more. We still kept the Lexan as it was a handy place to put then when not in use. Another thing we learned is not to use the throttle on the KOP joysticks when any precision is needed. It has some "wiggle" and is too small to position accurately.

[Dr. Shocker]

Our team has, for the past 2 years, used a small brief-case-esque box, with play station controllers. By using PS controllers our drivers are able to have more freedom in where they decided to stand, and over all it's more compact.

[cgmv123]

This wasn't ours, and I don't know who's it is, but it sure does look cool.

[jblay]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

This wasn't ours, and I don't know who's it is, but it sure does look cool.

It looks like that is more suitable for transmitting telegraphs than controlling a robot.

[Gray Adams]

Here's the CAD to our driver station, since someone asked. If you need me to explain why anything is the way it is, feel free to ask.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2062715/DriverStation.zip

http://gyazo.com/47b2f0beb1462f1bbd5137ad20b54a55.png
http://gyazo.com/d4c4867a8e07845553abd527c1fa1dd1.png
http://gyazo.com/d56d5d96ed0e9a1c73b3e993e6b7fd77.png
http://gyazo.com/d782fc9b19ddeb66f1790af3ea124c49.png

[ablatner]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

Here's the CAD to our driver station, since someone asked. If you need me to explain why anything is the way it is, feel free to ask.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2062715/DriverStation.zip

http://gyazo.com/47b2f0beb1462f1bbd5137ad20b54a55.png
http://gyazo.com/d4c4867a8e07845553abd527c1fa1dd1.png
http://gyazo.com/d56d5d96ed0e9a1c73b3e993e6b7fd77.png
http://gyazo.com/d782fc9b19ddeb66f1790af3ea124c49.png

We love this driver station. How'd you do the sheet metal fabrication and bending?

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by ablatner

We love this driver station. How'd you do the sheet metal fabrication and bending?

We had our sponsor Vander-Bend Manufacturing do it for us on their laser cutter and press brakes. They've done a few things for us this season, and we're hoping to involve them even more next year. I can give you the contact info of the person we've been communicating with if you'd like (feel free to mention my name and GRT). I believe 846 has them as a sponsor too, so I'm sure they'd be happy to help you guys out with anything.

[Chickenonastick]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

We had our sponsor Vander-Bend Manufacturing do it for us on their laser cutter and press brakes. They've done a few things for us this season, and we're hoping to involve them even more next year. I can give you the contact info of the person we've been communicating with if you'd like (feel free to mention my name and GRT). I believe 846 has them as a sponsor too, so I'm sure they'd be happy to help you guys out with anything.

Are there handles on that thing? Love the design and the fact that it has its own "belly pan".

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by Chickenonastick

Are there handles on that thing? Love the design and the fact that it has its own "belly pan".

Those slots in the middle, on either side of the computer can be used as handles, but I generally just held on to either side as if it were a big piece of plywood. It wasn't the best or most comfortable driver station to carry, but I'm sure with a couple improvements it could be quite a bit better. Slightly wider slots and a rubber gasket of sorts to protect knuckles would likely help.

[arizonafoxx]

What ever you do don't make the box more than 12". Many have mentioned the 44" constraint but we had an issue with an inspector at buckeye. He measured our drivers station and found that it was 1/8" over 12" and told use he would not pass our robot till this was corrected. His issue was that our drivers station was supposed to fit on the 12" shelf and not hang over. We tried to explain to him that once you plug in the comms cable and charge cable that these cables would make the drivers station hang over the shelf anyway. At that point he said I am just telling you what the rule in the manual states. Luckily for us the box was made out of wood so we were able to cut down one side of the box and pass inspection but the box was no longer the pretty box that was built during build season. This was the first time in my history of FRC that I had the box measured as part of the inspection of the robot. I also never saw that on the check list but maybe I missed it. We had the inspector sign the piece of wood so we could hang it on our wall of shame as a lesson learned. It also makes for a great story to tell freshmen about accurate measuring and leaving a tolerance for error.

[ablatner]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

We had our sponsor Vander-Bend Manufacturing do it for us on their laser cutter and press brakes. They've done a few things for us this season, and we're hoping to involve them even more next year. I can give you the contact info of the person we've been communicating with if you'd like (feel free to mention my name and GRT). I believe 846 has them as a sponsor too, so I'm sure they'd be happy to help you guys out with anything.

Thanks! That'd be great if I could get their info. We've been looking for some new sponsors to give us a little more manufacturing resources.

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

Here's the CAD to our driver station, since someone asked. If you need me to explain why anything is the way it is, feel free to ask.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2062715/DriverStation.zip

http://gyazo.com/47b2f0beb1462f1bbd5137ad20b54a55.pngLinks are DEAD, see imgur album in new post.
http://gyazo.com/d4c4867a8e07845553abd527c1fa1dd1.png
http://gyazo.com/d56d5d96ed0e9a1c73b3e993e6b7fd77.png
http://gyazo.com/d782fc9b19ddeb66f1790af3ea124c49.png

Sorry to bring this back up, but someone messaged me saying the links are dead and I can't edit the post, so here they are again.

http://imgur.com/a/xfkDh

[carrillo694]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

This wasn't ours, and I don't know who's it is, but it sure does look cool.

Love the steampunk. I would love to know how the operators feel about using those knife switches in retrospect...