Lights in Joystick board or control board

[rcubes85]

Hello again folks our team was thinking of putting some lights in our joystick board is there a rule that say that we cant do that? Or is there a rule that say that say that we have to use the power from the operator interface to power any form of light? Does this make sense?

[Jeff K.]

Well, that is legal for the first part to put lights on the joystick board. But what you have to do is get a seperate battery to power the lights.

[jgannon]

If you look in the OI reference guide, there are four pins on two of the ports that provide 5V at 10mA specifically for powering LEDs. You can use those, if you wish. Otherwise, they have to be powered by a battery.

[rcubes85]

Thank you guys for all your help.

[evilhunter]

HI we are a rookie team from Onekama Mi we are basically in the middle of no where. I do have a question about the switches on the OI custom board. Ok i understand that we cannot use lighted switches. But can we still use the switch and not wire the light in. Ok one more question can I use analog varible names to use on a switch like on p4_x or something to make it fire a button or not.


thanks for the help in advance

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by evilhunter

Ok i understand that we cannot use lighted switches. But can we still use the switch and not wire the light in.

Yes. Just be absolutely sure that the light isn't connected, or you'll fry the OI.

Originally Posted by evilhunter

Ok one more question can I use analog varible names to use on a switch like on p4_x or something to make it fire a button or not.

Yes. The switch states are stored to p4_sw_trig, p4_sw_top, p4_sw_aux1, and p4_sw_aux2.

[mv.aboyd]

Hi I am a rookie and i got the task of making a control board and I moded 2 ps2 controllers to control our robot and it works, but i just need to know if the OI has to be visible because it is curently in a ps2 case.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by mv.aboyd

Hi I am a rookie and i got the task of making a control board and I moded 2 ps2 controllers to control our robot and it works, but i just need to know if the OI has to be visible because it is curently in a ps2 case.

Yes, the OI (specifically the lights) have to be visible.

[mv.aboyd]

what lights have to be visible, because can i just use the 8 led ports and put the leds on top of the ps2

[mv.aboyd]

oh yea and are we allowed to have a battery power out OI

[Specialagentjim]

Originally Posted by mv.aboyd

Hi I am a rookie and i got the task of making a control board and I moded 2 ps2 controllers to control our robot and it works, but i just need to know if the OI has to be visible because it is curently in a ps2 case.

Also, the OI has to be accessible, as the competition port must be plugged in directly to the FIRST field.

[mv.aboyd]

I know that I out the competition port where the expansion bay was

[Billfred]

Essentially, all of the LEDs have to be visible. It helps immensely when your robot is going haywire, and you need to know what's up.

As for the battery connection, I'm not quite sure what you mean--but anything that connects to the joystick ports on the OI has to run off OI power. If you were to connect something to the Dashboard port (laptop, PDA, etc.), then you can run that off batteries. You can also power any lights or miscellaneous bling on your board from batteries--but they can not connect to the OI.

[mv.aboyd]

thanks i was hoping i wouldn't have to cut a whole in the ps2, but i guess i will.. the battery was to power the OI when it isn't pluged into the wall so it would be cordless..I already did it and it works fine i just need to know if it is allowed

[Billfred]

Allowed? I dunno--but it is unnecessary at an FRC event.

When you get to the field, your OI will get power from the Competition port. After the match, and while practicing, you'll be on tether (which means your OI will get power from the robot).