Custom Operator Console

[Mr. 1033]

Hey everyone,

My team is talking about making a custom operator console (ie push buttons, etc) to control their point scoring mechanisms this year.

We would love some technical help as far as best vendors (I imagine digikey) and how to go about transferring the signals from them into an acceptable manner for the laptop.

Thanks!

[Alan Anderson]

The Cypress "FirstTouch" board accepts switch inputs and analog voltage inputs and a number of other controls. Support for it is built in to the Driver Station program. The board is a little expensive if you don't already have one, and connecting to it can be more of a hassle than it needs to be unless you buy a purpose-built carrier board.

There's a "Custom Control Interface" board from eStop Robotics that takes switches and pots and emulates a vanilla USB joystick. It's an off-the-shelf solution, developed specifically for what you want.

Some teams have programmed a "Teensy" board to do the same sort of joystick emulation. It's cheaper than the CCI.