Recommendation for Driver Station switch supplier

[Javaru]

For a pre-build season project we are building our first ever custom driver station. Can someone recommend a good source that has good prices and a good variety of rocker switches, push button switches, and pots? One switch we'd really like to find is raise/lower rocker switch like shown in the below image link. (I'm the software guy, so I know I''m not using the proper EE terms, sorry.)

http://s21.postimg.org/6j4zmxvlf/Raise_Lower_Switch.png

[Alan Anderson]

I've always found a good selection of switches at Digi-Key.

Before you get too far into the project, how are you going to be connecting the switches to the Driver Station? The Cypress I/O board is no longer supported in the 2015 system.

[Javaru]

Thanks Alan. We were looking to use the eStop Robotics Custom Control Interface. I've read others have had good luck with it. As far as I can tell, it is still supported for the 2015 system. Any info to the contrary? I'm just trying to do some of the leg work right now. I'm going to verify the switch types through our EE before purchase. (He's just a bit busy now due to a new job, thus my taking this bull by the horns.)

[Alan Anderson]

The CCI acts just like a standard USB joystick, and will work without any special support necessary on the Driver Station computer.

The product pictures in the Digi-Key online catalog usually don't have any indication of scale. Make sure you check the data sheet and understand the size of what you're looking at when you decide what you want to use.

[sanddrag]

I am interested in alternatives to the Estop CCI board. It worked great, until it's driver glitches and caused us to be dead for the match in the semifinals.

[AustinSchuh]

My favorite buttons are https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9336 They have amazing tactile feel. Unfortunately, they are a bit tall for our driver station setup.

We've been using https://store.djtechtools.com/products/arcade-buttons . They trigger slightly easier than I'd like, but they are short and robust.

[ILAMtitan]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

My favorite buttons are https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9336 They have amazing tactile feel. Unfortunately, they are a bit tall for our driver station setup.

We've been using https://store.djtechtools.com/products/arcade-buttons . They trigger slightly easier than I'd like, but they are short and robust.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the arcade style buttons. They are quite large, and the actuation force is a bit low. This can result in accidental presses in an intense match, and you don't have great physical feedback of a successful press.

Our team spent about three weeks ordering various switches from different manufacturers and finally settled on NKK UB pushbuttons (Here's one of them: http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...02-ND/1007159). They are a bit more expensive, but they have a great feel, and come in illuminated varieties. When you press them, you know it. There is a wide variety of colors and styles available on DigiKey.

We used the TI Stellaris Launchpad last year to run our CCI rather than some of the older solutions. There is a great post on how to use it here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=122587

The source code is also available in TI's TivaWare, so you can even go make any changes you want. We used it to also generate PWMs for LEDs to back light our CCI itself! I wish I had a better photo of the finished CCI, but here's a quick shot I took of it when it was finally assembled, the night before our first regional.



With the TI board, we didn't have any issues at all. If you have any questions regarding our build, please let me know.