LED Driver Console Light (USB)?

[An Outlier]

My team is looking for a single USB LED light, to attach to our driver console. The goal would be for it to light up whenever our robot is in position to sink a goal.

We have tried a R/G boolean on the SmartDashboard, but would prefer something more bright, easy to spot, and reliable.

Has anyone else done this, and if so, what do you suggest?
Thanks!

[CalTran]

Dunno if it's still a practice, but teams used to do a pseudo heads up display by wiring an LED to the corner of a pair of safety glasses hooked up to their driver station they would put on after auto.

[Alan Anderson]

Are you asking how to control an LED from the Driver Station?

Answering a different question than the one you asked: a game controller with a rumble feature might work better than a light.

[randantor]

Originally Posted by An Outlier

My team is looking for a single USB LED light, to attach to our driver console. The goal would be for it to light up whenever our robot is in position to sink a goal.

We have tried a R/G boolean on the SmartDashboard, but would prefer something more bright, easy to spot, and reliable.

Has anyone else done this, and if so, what do you suggest?
Thanks!

Have you looked into putting LEDs on the robot instead? A simple 12V led strip or ring (such as the light ring in the KOP) can be very easily controlled by wiring it to a solenoid port (assuming you aren't using 24V solenoids).

[An Outlier]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Are you asking how to control an LED from the Driver Station?

Yes, what I am asking is:
1) Is there a single USB LED light that one can purchase
2) How can that LED be controlled to toggle between ON and OFF

Thanks!

[rich2202]

The problem is that you need 2 things:

1) RoboRio code to send LED command to the Driver Station
2) Something on the Driver Station you can control

With WPILIB C++, your outputs to the Driver Station are limited to: Smart Dashboard, and Joystick.

Thus, the only thing that you can control off screen using WPILIB is a joystick.

Under Joystick, you can Set Rumble, and Set HID.

Ok, so now you need a joystick controller that can decode Rumble and/or HID. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a USB joystick encoder board that could decode either.

So, your best bet is to get a Joystick with a Rumble feature, and when you are in the target area, cause the joystick to rumble. The Rumble may be superior to the LED because the Driver doesn't have to look for the LED.

Note: There are a lot of USB LED controllers you can buy (#2), but you would need your programmers to write the library code to control it.