568 making the impossible possible...kinda

[Draqo]

So there's a lot of ideas thrown around on these forums about having a PS2 controller for a controller for the OI. Well today my team spent the day packing up to get ready for San Jose while I fiddled with one and rigged it all up. Analogs work great and are 2ko - 8ko range, we got 100Ko POTS replacements for them too incase it doesn't work out too well with their current stock config. Most of the time was the soldering part, directly onto the circuit board. Why mess with the original PS2 pinout when it's easier to solder and just rig up each part to the specific DB15 pins?

So yes, at this point our team HAS a PS2 controller for the OI. Tuning the solder job will be done tomorrow before we leave, so far our team's been great, stressful, but great non the less.

[personal gloat]
Here's the new planned layout for our dashboard port sniffer program:
-Automatic calibration for joysticks
-Selective control types
-PWM color display
-Camera display
-Software shifting (for preventing an amp spike)
-Other more features that you'll have to come to San Jose to see.
[/gloat]

[JonBell]

Originally Posted by Draqo

So there's a lot of ideas thrown around on these forums about having a PS2 controller for a controller for the OI. Well today my team spent the day packing up to get ready for San Jose while I fiddled with one and rigged it all up. Analogs work great and are 2ko - 8ko range, we got 100Ko POTS replacements for them too incase it doesn't work out too well with their current stock config. Most of the time was the soldering part, directly onto the circuit board. Why mess with the original PS2 pinout when it's easier to solder and just rig up each part to the specific DB15 pins?

So yes, at this point our team HAS a PS2 controller for the OI. Tuning the solder job will be done tomorrow before we leave, so far our team's been great, stressful, but great non the less.

[personal gloat]
Here's the new planned layout for our dashboard port sniffer program:
-Automatic calibration for joysticks
-Selective control types
-PWM color display
-Camera display
-Software shifting (for preventing an amp spike)
-Other more features that you'll have to come to San Jose to see.
[/gloat]

I thought that you specifically weren't allowed to have cameras transmitting nor a laptop hooked up for direct operator feedback? Have you cleared this all with FIRST?

Other than that, it looks amazing, great job

[Rombus]

AFIK JonBell, You can have a laptop connected to the DASHBOARD only on the OI to display such information.

The camera display however, i dont know about. I know that you cant have any OTHER cameras transmitting, but if they figured out a way to transmit the picture from the CMU cam2 to the operator, that MIGHT be legal. Honistly i thought it wasnet possible to do that since i figured the radio couldnet support that kinda data transfer

[Draqo]

Originally Posted by Rombus

AFIK JonBell, You can have a laptop connected to the DASHBOARD only on the OI to display such information.

The camera display however, i dont know about. I know that you cant have any OTHER cameras transmitting, but if they figured out a way to transmit the picture from the CMU cam2 to the operator, that MIGHT be legal. Honistly i thought it wasnet possible to do that since i figured the radio couldnet support that kinda data transfer

Camera data is sent through a custom 6 or 8 byte packet using the userbytes, there are several custom packets for each part of the OI display with their own ID just like the real packets have. The laptop is just hooked up to the Dashboard port and sniffs and displays data visually. It's more like a monitor (the laptop) plugged into a computer (dashboard port). And the keyboard is a joypad connected to one of the joystick ports.

[JonBell]

Very cool, and very innovative!

But I just wanted to make you guys aware of the rules - (From FIRST FAQ)

D: 1039 Section: 5.3.4.2 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/11/2005
Q: Are we able to have a mounted camera on the robot providing live feedback from the arena floor?
A: Cameras are allowed with FIRST's permission but the video output cannot be transmitted to your drivers for control purposes during any match.

It sounds like you just have to make it clear now that it's not for control purposes, but doccumentation?

[Greg Perkins]

I dont believe what he's saying is he is intending to use the camera on dashboard. all he meant was during testing he got his feedback through dashboard to get all his electrical mumbo-jumbo information that i have no idea what it means. other than that..rockon!

[seanwitte]

It looks like they're using the CMUCam and hes including that information in his dashboard viewer. This is a great idea if you're using the camera because you'll get visual feedback as to what the camera is "seeing". The interface looks really cool.

If you're using the CMUCam and you want a dashboard viewer that will display the camera feedback, you can download one here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pa...le&paperid=474. The camera information needs to be copied to the feedback bytes as follows:

User_Byte1 = cam.x;
User_Byte2 = cam.y;
User_Byte3 = cam.x1;
User_Byte4 = cam.y1;
User_Byte5 = cam.x2;
User_Byte6 = cam.y2;

There is a screenshot of the CMUCam feedback information from an early version of the application here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...15&postcount=6