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  #16   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 01-06-2013, 20:34
Photo Storm Photo Storm is offline
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

All the feedback that is given is great and will definitely factor into the new driver station. I just have one more question about this. The group I am working with wants to have alot of buttons off the controller and on the board. These auxiliary buttons could be useful like for an e-stop but how many do you really need to incorporate into the deign? The new station is being built with practicality in the future in mind and our team in the past years has used only a driver. This year we used a joystick but I think our team prefers controllers.
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Unread 01-06-2013, 21:22
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rachelholladay rachelholladay is offline
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Photo Storm View Post
All the feedback that is given is great and will definitely factor into the new driver station. I just have one more question about this. The group I am working with wants to have alot of buttons off the controller and on the board. These auxiliary buttons could be useful like for an e-stop but how many do you really need to incorporate into the deign? The new station is being built with practicality in the future in mind and our team in the past years has used only a driver. This year we used a joystick but I think our team prefers controllers.
I am a huge fan of the e-stop custom control interface board. But then again, we build a new drivers console every year and mount specialty buttons and switches into the wood board. (We have, on occasion, recycled some handles and some buttons.) We make a new board every year because, while the design stays about the same, the holes drilled into the board for mounting and placements of these holes change based on the user control. If you wanted to re-use the same drivers console year after year, obviously this would be difficult.

While reusing the board would have its advantages, its also nice to give flexibility to your drive team on how they want to control the robot, which is why we don't build ours in till Week 5 of build season, when the control interface has been decided upon. (Anecdote: In 2012 our driver asked for tank drive because thats what he was always comfortable with. Less than a minute into driving the partly-completed bot around week 5, he turned to me [head programmer] "I changed my mind. Arcade." It wasn't a difficult switch, but it shows why its hard to design a user interface without the item you are controlling).
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Unread 01-06-2013, 21:39
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by rachelholladay View Post
We make a new board every year because, while the design stays about the same, the holes drilled into the board for mounting and placements of these holes change based on the user control. If you wanted to re-use the same drivers console year after year, obviously this would be difficult.
Actually, you could do something that would work.

Get a project box from RadioShack. If you get a decent-sized one, it should cover all the buttons you'd need (say, a 12"x9"x3" box). If you design a space for the box--including a cable routing to an interface to the laptop--and just change that box every year, then you should be OK.

Now, I do wonder why you want ANOTHER E-stop--there's one set in the driver station on the laptop (I think it's the spacebar), at the events there's a Big Red Button in the driver's station that will immediately disable your robot for the match. But that's just me.
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Unread 01-06-2013, 22:57
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

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Originally Posted by EricH View Post
Actually, you could do something that would work.

Get a project box from RadioShack. If you get a decent-sized one, it should cover all the buttons you'd need (say, a 12"x9"x3" box). If you design a space for the box--including a cable routing to an interface to the laptop--and just change that box every year, then you should be OK.
Thats actually pretty solid idea.. We've just always made the base out of one piece of wood and designated it as a project for the chassis team to do when they have finished the drive train and are working on the bumpers. But Ill pass along that idea..

Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH View Post
Now, I do wonder why you want ANOTHER E-stop--there's one set in the driver station on the laptop (I think it's the spacebar), at the events there's a Big Red Button in the driver's station that will immediately disable your robot for the match. But that's just me.
I was referring to an E-Stop product - https://www.estoprobotics.com/estore...d&productId=33

I definitely wouldn't want another auto disable button!
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Unread 01-06-2013, 23:02
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by rachelholladay View Post
Thats actually pretty solid idea.. We've just always made the base out of one piece of wood and designated it as a project for the chassis team to do when they have finished the drive train and are working on the bumpers. But Ill pass along that idea..
I was actually referring to having the project box on the base or whatever you use. We always did--either on top or inside. Change the box every year as needed.
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  #21   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 01-06-2013, 23:03
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Wow on team 2950 our driver station was a thick piece of either plexi-glass or thick plastic. Then we Velcro'd our classmate and joysticks to it. For the handle we used the Classmate handle for the laptop since magical leprechauns enchanted the Velcro to be super strong to support a laptop and joysticks if held by the classmate handle
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Unread 01-06-2013, 23:21
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

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Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure View Post
Ever since being exposed to FLL, I like to use Dual Lock for this kind of application. Makes things snap nicely into place.
+1 for Dual Lock. This coming from somebody who has been around FLL for over 9 years. (Upcoming season will be my 10th)
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Unread 02-06-2013, 00:44
brennanvhoek brennanvhoek is offline
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Between regionals this year I went about designing a new driver station. It was designed to be used year to year and just swap out the polycarbonate piece on the left each year for our custom switches and controls (we like to use a control panel and a controller). The right side holds either a controller or a joystick depending on what we want, with the controller being stashed inside the drivers station during transport and set on top during competition. Also, we put a slight angle on the switch panel which was a really nice touch and made it easier and more comfortable to use.



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Unread 02-06-2013, 01:13
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

It's been a while for me, but my co-driver(s) and I in 2007 and 2008 were all ~6ft plus tall, so our driver station had almost a foot of height to it, to get the joysticks up to a height where my forearms could be horizontal so I had better control. Perhaps not so much of a consideration these days with all the handheld gamepads, but definitely keep ergonomics in mind - the more comfortable (or at least, the less awkward) you can make it to use, the more effectively you'll be able to use it.
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Unread 02-06-2013, 07:56
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by monty1540 View Post
It's been a while for me, but my co-driver(s) and I in 2007 and 2008 were all ~6ft plus tall, so our driver station had almost a foot of height to it, to get the joysticks up to a height where my forearms could be horizontal so I had better control. Perhaps not so much of a consideration these days with all the handheld gamepads, but definitely keep ergonomics in mind - the more comfortable (or at least, the less awkward) you can make it to use, the more effectively you'll be able to use it.
Definitely, and it's not just for joysticks. Make sure you can see the computer screen easily, whether it's the driver for a camera image or the coach for diagonatics. (This has at least technically weirder with the 12" limit.)

We haven't used buttons in a while, but our use has varied widely. I think I had 8? big ones laid out linearly, and even another layout would've been weird for me (adjustable, nut weird). For us, there's no logical way to accommodate all these options while also maintaining the qualities we'd like otherwise; so we intend on having a perennial OC while understanding the operator can request a unique one any given year. There are cost, tome, etc limits we set, but within them it's amazing how night of an impact your OC can have on your performance.
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Unread 03-06-2013, 08:54
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Here's a picture of our driver station if you want them. Personally, I think our driver station looks pretty cool

and one more:
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Unread 03-06-2013, 10:28
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Photo Storm View Post
All the feedback that is given is great and will definitely factor into the new driver station. I just have one more question about this. The group I am working with wants to have alot of buttons off the controller and on the board. These auxiliary buttons could be useful like for an e-stop but how many do you really need to incorporate into the deign? The new station is being built with practicality in the future in mind and our team in the past years has used only a driver. This year we used a joystick but I think our team prefers controllers.
We never use auxiliary buttons. We have this nice briefcase which an artistically inclined student painted.

http://www.igknighters.com/Robotics/...l/DSC_0282.jpg

When we get to the drivers station we just open the case and take off the lid. The joysticks are velcroed to the top of the lid so that we set it down and have a nice joystick set up all ready. Then we take the game pad out of the case and open up the laptop and we are good to go. All of our controls (except E-Stop) are on either the joysticks, gamepad or both so we never have to create auxiliary buttons.
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Unread 04-06-2013, 00:44
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Re: Driver Station Suggestions

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Originally Posted by gabrielau23 View Post
Here's a picture of our driver station if you want them. Personally, I think our driver station looks pretty cool
[images snipped for space]
That looks really cool, but really big and heavy too.
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