USB Joystick adapter is here!

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

You can count on it. They may not be fully functional, as we are still fine tuning. But they will be there.

Whe will we be able to get it online? I keep checking the website to make sure its not a dream. Is there a date of release? When can we buy it? We have been waiting for something like this for a long time!! Thanks!!

[ChuckDickerson]

Any new word on the USB-Chicklet? The website says they will be available in November 2006 which has come and gone with no news on pricing or availability. I hope these are not vaporware or some cruel joke just to get our hopes up! I eagerly await the product release and bet many others do as well.

[ChuckDickerson]

Hey the website has been updated! The price is now set at $99 and they will be available in January! No button to pre-order yet though.

[Ethulin]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

Hey the website has been updated! The price is now set at $99 and they will be available in January! No button to pre-order yet though.

Woha! Oh so cool. I think the question on everyone's mind is if FIRST will let them in due to the power usage. I am inclined to say yes, but I am not willing to put $100 on that and I don't think many other teams would as well. I wish FIRST could make an early decision so we all know...

[Joel J]

Originally Posted by Ethulin

Woha! Oh so cool. I think the question on everyone's mind is if FIRST will let them in due to the power usage. I am inclined to say yes, but I am not willing to put $100 on that and I don't think many other teams would as well. I wish FIRST could make an early decision so we all know...

I think its a hint that the OI has been revamped!

[Kingofl337]

If they were going to revamp the OI it would probably have this built in. I seriously doubt the OI has been changed. I honestly think they are just hoping FIRST will say ok.

[Joel J]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

If they were going to revamp the OI it would probably have this built in. I seriously doubt the OI has been changed. I honestly think they are just hoping FIRST will say ok.

It seems that you are correct, as far as the legality of the product goes:

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

This is the important question indeed. We are working to find a way to power it off of the O/I. A possibility is powering it from the competition port.
As far as the rule is concerned, I am not even going to begin to speculate weather or not FIRST will change this rule. I will say that it would be dissapointing to not be able to use this technology because of a rule that was created before it existed. We were aware of the necessity of a rule change prior to developing the device. That is the risk you take in bussiness I guess this is similar to what Dean Kamen must have gone through when he created the segway. I know some City's don't allow segways on the streets or sidwalk's. It is a shame to see such technology get restricted.

[Pavan Dave]

Why am I always the last to hear about such things. Anyways if the product is great and it is found to be FIRST-efficient, than they can expect buisness from 90% of FIRST teams in my opinion because there is atleast one student on EVERY team that thinks their joystick is the best.

Pavan.

[Cory]

If these turn out to be FRC legal, we'll be buying them ASAP. We're down to our last 3 CH flightsticks (currently on our 06 controls, which we'd like not to pilfer from for 07). We broke 3 last year, and can't find any except those ugly gray base ones. It's a shame we stopped getting those joysticks in the kit. They're amazing.

[Gdeaver]

If they are not legal this year and teams are stuck with the game port interface, look at the CH industrial joy sticks. they have good feel and can be ordered with First required pots. I've used some portable lifting devices that use these joysticks and the feel is very good. Much better than the kit joy sticks. Couldn't the usb adapter use a super cap to supply power? The OI is powered for some time before the joysticks are actively used.

[Viper37]

hopefully first will just break down and give us USB.

[Kingofl337]

Honestly making an Xbox360 controller work on the current system isn't very hard. They have 10k pots in them you just need to scale the output. GameCube and PS2 controllers also have 10k pots.

You just have to cut the traces to the pots and solder directly to them. Thats about it.

Obviously a plug and play solution would make life easier. If your controller breaks you can goto Circuit City and get a replacement.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

Honestly making an Xbox360 controller work on the current system isn't very hard. They have 10k pots in them you just need to scale the output. GameCube and PS2 controllers also have 10k pots.

Just tell me when you get a Wiimote talking to the OI.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

Honestly making an Xbox360 controller work on the current system isn't very hard. They have 10k pots in them you just need to scale the output. GameCube and PS2 controllers also have 10k pots.

It's not quite that simple. The O/I is measuring the current through the analog inputs, not voltage. Simply soldering the 10k pots to a connector will give you limited range. Approximately %10 of the expected range(100k). Not to mention the O/I will never see analog value 127. The correct way to adjust for this is to create a voltage divider using the 5v aux as the input to the divider. You would divide the voltage down to apx. %10 of 5v (500mv).

Lets compare:

5v/100k = 50uA

.5v/10K = 50uA

As you can see from the math above, this is the only way to "trick" the O/I into seeing a 100k range of resistance. If you do not do this, the O/I will see a value of 229 at 10k. As the resistance decreases the value will increase. so your range will be 229-254.

[Dennis Jenks]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

so your range will be 229-254.

I'm pretty sure most teams would be OK with being somewhere between Division by Zero and Cheesy Poofs!