Flightstick joystick replacements?

[team222badbrad]

The joysticks we recieved in previous years have been discontinued. My team is looking to find good replacement joysticks. I have searched the forums but I found nothing. We are in need of 3 similar joysticks to restore previous robot control systems.

Does anyone know of a good 2 button, 15 pin gameport connection, that also includes a "rotating switch"?

We dont need joysticks that have 10 buttons like 2004 joysticks.
I had to operate the robot with one of those... I had to use all buttons except the one thumb knob in the middle of the other 2 buttons.

Thanks

[MOEmaniac]

I'm not sure about the pins for the gameport but did you look at the old Atari joysticks because i believe they have 2 buttons but I'm not positive about the rotating switch.

[Venkatesh]

Last season, I was interested in tweaking joystick outputs electronically. I needed a few ones to mess around with. I have had very good success at old computer stores, because they tend to have the old type of joysticks all over the place.

[Dave Flowerday]

Don't forget the obvious: eBay. There's at least a few on there, and it looks like you could obtain them for less than $10 pretty easily (unless everyone on CD jumps on there and runs up the bidding ). Just search for "flightstick".

[Andy A.]

I still don't understand why they were discontunied. In my mind, they are among the best sticks I've ever used. Sure, the new fangled usb ones may have a lot of buttons and gizmos, but nothing I've used can compare with the accuracy and feel of the old CH sticks.

I only hope that at some point FIRST has enough lobbying power to get CH to start back up production.

Has anyone found a comparable stick from another company?

-Andy A.

[Pat Roche]

I also had trouble with the sensitivity of the new joysticks. I just couldnt control the robot because they were too sensitive. Me and the driver had to talk the advisor into letting us go back to the flightsticks...best joysticks i've ever used. Definately check ebay and the old computer stores. I know that actually found a used four button joystick at a yard sale that worked really good on the offseason bot. Can't remember the company that makes it though.

-Pat

[J. Stofflett]

We have had success with the Gamestick 3D from CH Products. 4 buttons, 15 pin gameport connection. They can be purchased directly from CH Products CLEARANCED ITEMS http://www.chproducts.com/shop/page2.html only problem is they can't be returned.

[Astronouth7303]

Look for joy sticks with a 'Throttle' or a 'Z-axis'. eBay has plenty of stuff.

[Ryan F.]

It seems like all of us, my team included, really didn't like the new joystics. They were way too sensitive, end even if they had a lot of buttons, you could add more to the old controllers. Even if FIRST isn't able to provide us with the flightsticks anymore, hopefully they will change to something new...besides the current ones.

[Astronouth7303]

[off]And our new ones were weird: one didn't have working axis, the other didn't have working buttons. I say take it off the base and make a secondary controller out of it.[/off]
As for the pin outs, there are plenty of sites. And it's in the default code doc. (and use correct pots!)

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

[off]And our new ones were weird: one didn't have working axis, the other didn't have working buttons. I say take it off the base and make a secondary controller out of it.[/off]
As for the pin outs, there are plenty of sites. And it's in the default code doc. (and use correct pots!)

Same with ours! The buttons on one of the joysticks just stopped working. Always sent 0 signals.

[dez250]

remember only rookies and 2nd year teams this past season were origionally going to get joysticks at all and these were a list minuet addition and i dont think FIRST looked them over all that well. I think if we get another donation of joysticks, a better and more concise decision will be made on if they are apropiate or not for our uses.

[Venkatesh]

I still don't understand why they were discontunied. In my mind, they are among the best sticks I've ever used. Sure, the new fangled usb ones may have a lot of buttons and gizmos, but nothing I've used can compare with the accuracy and feel of the old CH sticks.

I very strongly agree with this statement. I have used many different types of joysticks, and the old CH flightsticks were the best I ever used. Once calibrated, they tended to stay that way, and they were very sturdy, as most FIRST teams can attest to.

[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by SilverStar

Same with ours! The buttons on one of the joysticks just stopped working. Always sent 0 signals.

We had one stick that the digital buttons gave fluttering signals which really messed up one of our mechanisms were the button was supposed to open a plow, so the plow was given repeated signals to open and close.

In one of our elimination rounds, we climbed to the top platform, got our hook on the bar and i (the coach) gave the command to winch, only to find that the plastic button was missing from the joystick. I quickly fumbled around my pockets to find a tool to stick in the hole to press the piece inside that actually closes/opens the circuit. Sadly, the pen i conveniently had didn't do the trick, and we didn't hang. Maybe this was really my team's fault, but it definitely hurts my opinion of these sticks.