Custom Drive Stations

[Sperkowsky]

Currently I am working on a driver station that has a full sized desktop in it. Should be done for next season.

It is going to have a full sized ATX motherboard, 2 ssds in Raid 0, a nvidia Quadro, and sometimes around the line of an i5 or an 8350.

[jtrv]

I can't recall what team number it was, but at 2015 Finger Lakes Regional, there was a team who brought a TV to the driver station, pretty sure over 30 inches. They just connected their laptop to it via HDMI and then had a 30+ inch screen for their robot's webcam, which was positioned in a perfect position to see pretty much everything.

Now, I'm not saying it's a viable driver station, but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more.

[messer5740]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Currently I am working on a driver station that has a full sized desktop in it. Should be done for next season.

It is going to have a full sized ATX motherboard, 2 ssds in Raid 0, a nvidia Quadro, and sometimes around the line of an i5 or an 8350.

That is awesome. How heavy will that be, and do you require that kind of power to run the driver station program? I think a laptop will suffice.

I think the issue with the weight was to have camera poles and TVs (also done this year) that shown the field, but I feel they were quite unnecessary and just added extra weight. Our driver station only weighed about 7 lbs with the computer and joystick mounted.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by messer5740

That is awesome. How heavy will that be, and do you require that kind of power to run the driver station program? I think a laptop will suffice.

I think the issue with the weight was to have camera poles and TVs (also done this year) that shown the field, but I feel they were quite unnecessary and just added extra weight. Our driver station only weighed about 7 lbs with the computer and joystick mounted.

You definitely do not require that much power. Its just fun.

It will probably be around 20 pounds. Most of which is due to the monitor.

Your last point concerned me. Trust me camera poles helped a ton. They are were not unnecessary at all and probably go down as the biggest game breaker of the year.

[messer5740]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

You definitely do not require that much power. Its just fun.

It will probably be around 20 pounds. Most of which is due to the monitor.

Your last point concerned me. Trust me camera poles helped a ton. They are were not unnecessary at all and probably go down as the biggest game breaker of the year.

We didn't use camera polls for seeing the field. We just used dead reckoning to get through defenses such as the back side of the drawbridge. I think the polls were dangerous and heavy too. Plus many teams brought TVs to hook up to their cameras which again added stress to the shelves. Ultimately I feel they were unnecessary for our team did fine not using camera polls or cameras on our robot, but that may not be the case for other teams. This is just my opinion and I do not reflect the opinions of my team or any others.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by messer5740

... I think the polls were dangerous and heavy too...

If there were teams using "dangerous and heavy" poles at events they didn't look very hard for them. We found 3 different size window squeegee poles at our local Home Depot that worked great for our camera and were very lightweight. Had the rules not been changed we would have been able to extent up to ~20ft and it would have added maybe a few lbs to the driver station at most.

[Eric Scheuing]

999 made our driver's station more portable this year by building one that is able to fold in on itself and has a removable handle for carrying. It fits 3 joysticks and a laptop, and has been a huge plus for our driver, who used to have to carry our wooden station on a strap around his neck!

[tr6scott]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Currently I am working on a driver station that has a full sized desktop in it. Should be done for next season.

It is going to have a full sized ATX motherboard, 2 ssds in Raid 0, a nvidia Quadro, and sometimes around the line of an i5 or an 8350.

Are you planning a ups? that is the big advantage of laptops, over desktops, one power blip and your gone...

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by tr6scott

Are you planning a ups? that is the big advantage of laptops, over desktops, one power blip and your gone...

Yes I am. We will do some testing. If it becomes too much of an issue it will probably just be a showpiece.

[aphelps231]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Currently I am working on a driver station that has a full sized desktop in it. Should be done for next season.

This sounds awesome, but why?

Sometimes you have to question whether or not the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Personally, I believe there are too many things that can go wrong with a desktop computer (I've built many myself) that would cause issues in matches.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by aphelps231

This sounds awesome, but why?

Sometimes you have to question whether or not the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Personally, I believe there are too many things that can go wrong with a desktop computer (I've built many myself) that would cause issues in matches.

If built right and with correctly tested and maintained components the pc will be fine.

Again If there are issues it won't be used it match but I think it will go alright.

[kristinweiss]

This is the driver station that I built for my team back when I was a student several years ago. The top has velcro to secure all of the controls and laptop, and the whole top piece comes off to allow you to get inside the box and manage all the wires. The lights only turn on when the driver station is plugged in correctly. It is make out of 1/8" acrylic with aluminum supports along the top and 1/4" acrylic on the bottom. The ends are laser engraved with the team name and number. The velcro on the top allows us to change out the controls from year to year depending on the game and robot, and since these pictures were taken we have switched out the laptop for a Macbook.

[Littlepchan]

I know this isn't a competition, but... I think ours is the biggest !

[Maffalfa]

Originally Posted by Littlepchan

Attachment 20791

I know this isn't a competition, but... I think ours is the biggest !

That must have been a pain to carry from pit to field.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by Littlepchan

Attachment 20791

I know this isn't a competition, but... I think ours is the biggest !

I think that team that had the like 40" screen still holds that title, not sure where the picture of it went though.