New Robot Controllers

[seanwitte]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

using digital controls would just make programming harder, and wouldnt really give that much of an advantage. Plus, this probably wouldn't fly with FIRST. Dean Kamen made a it a huge point in his "homework" to make it as easy for rookie teams as possible. Rookies have a hard enough time programming as it is, and this would probably just make it worse.

It wouldn't change the programming at all because it only affects the OI. The RC doesn't know (or care) how the inputs are processed by the OI. The only difference in the physical interface is that the OI shifts in digital bits instead of converting analog signals before sending the packet to the RC.

If they keep some of the analog ports but add a PS2-style digital port it would open it up to some really cool stuff. If you emulate the PS2 data transfer protocol (synchronous serial) using a PC or a uP you'd be able to interface ANYTHING to the OI.

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A Playstation controller interface only uses four pins: Attention, Clock, Data, And Command. The data is shifted out one bit at a time arranged in a six byte packet. There are two bytes for all the buttons and two bytes for each of the analog joysticks. It would make it difficult to add switches or pots unless they provide some analog inputs as well.
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