How the heck do you use an XBOX360 controller with the chicklet??

[Cowmankoza]

The PS3 controller could not be used anyways, since it has a built in battery pack, while even tho one would argue that its getting its power thru usb, you are inadvertantly using a second power source, sorry guys, no 6-axis for you

[amateurrobotguy]

Hey, we are not playing GTA 4 here, we are DRIVING A ROBOT! If your game controller was SOOOO hot, then why wouldn't the military use it in a tank? Oh yeah, maybe a 1 millimeter thumb movement is not stable enough to drive $60 million worth of equipment? Or how bout why they don't use it in controlling autonomous planes? Hmmm, looks like they use joysticks too.

"Woops my thumb slipped and I dropped the floatie" will be common words.

I have grown up with game controllers, me and 95% of our team agrees that a joystick is far superior to a game controller. Like I said before, the game controller was designed to emulate a real joystick, so just use the joystick and stop thinking you are playing a video game.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

If your game controller was SOOOO hot, then why wouldn't the military use it in a tank?

I'm curious to know where you are getting your information from?

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

Oh yeah, maybe a 1 millimeter thumb movement is not stable enough to drive $60 million worth of equipment?

1mm of movement? Have you actually used a game pad?

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

Or how bout why they don't use it in controlling autonomous planes? Hmmm, looks like they use joysticks too.

Again, were are you getting your "Facts" from? It makes sense to use a joystick to fly an autonomous plane. It is the closest thing to the controls in an actual military aircraft. Need I remind you a gamepad has two joysticks with, contrary to your opinion, almost an inch of travel.

I believe you have the right to develope your own opinion. I would suggest it be based on actual experience and facts.

[Thorcat]

A little off-topic, but could you use one of the new Xbox360 controllers for windows? I think this would be the coolest soloution, if only for a demo during a school assembly. Has anybody tried this, or is there some obvious reason that it can't work?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by amateurrobotguy

Hey, we are not playing GTA 4 here, we are DRIVING A ROBOT! If your game controller was SOOOO hot, then why wouldn't the military use it in a tank? Oh yeah, maybe a 1 millimeter thumb movement is not stable enough to drive $60 million worth of equipment? Or how bout why they don't use it in controlling autonomous planes? Hmmm, looks like they use joysticks too.

"Woops my thumb slipped and I dropped the floatie" will be common words.

I have grown up with game controllers, me and 95% of our team agrees that a joystick is far superior to a game controller. Like I said before, the game controller was designed to emulate a real joystick, so just use the joystick and stop thinking you are playing a video game.

Well... your problem might be that you are basing your statements on speculation; Mike is basing his on something a little more concrete, like the facts.

I ordered chicklets on day one because my team was planning on hard wiring the xbox controller anyway, and this allowed us to use unmodified controllers which saves a lot of time, and also allows the process of finding a spare at a regional much easier.

All the kids on our team unanimously agreed that an xbox controller is more familiar to them than joysticks; The freedom of movement Mike mentioned would also be very beneficial. I figure if people can be uber snipers in Halo 2 and Call of Duty with it, why can't we drive a robot with it.

Also, if you have nothing positive to say about something Mike put so much hard work into (thank you mike, you allowed our electronics to spend time pursuing higher goals, rather than hours of repetitive yet easy soldering) then I ask you to simply stop posting in this thread.

Another thing that bothered me a little bit. They don't use joysticks to control autonomous planes; They wouldn't be autonomous then.

[Dills]

to answer the question of why use a 360 controller instead of a joystick, our robot has 3 degrees of freedom and a manipulator (which would otherwise take 3 joysticks)

[AdamHeard]

We calibrated the controller for our 2006 robot today and it was awesome to drive. It was much easier for my teammates and me to control than joysticks.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

We calibrated the controller for our 2006 robot today and it was awesome to drive. It was much easier for my teammates and me to control than joysticks.

That's good to hear. I'm glad to see someone posting feed back about the Chicklet.

[Choi9111]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Well... your problem might be that you are basing your statements on speculation; Mike is basing his on something a little more concrete, like the facts.

I ordered chicklets on day one because my team was planning on hard wiring the xbox controller anyway, and this allowed us to use unmodified controllers which saves a lot of time, and also allows the process of finding a spare at a regional much easier.

All the kids on our team unanimously agreed that an xbox controller is more familiar to them than joysticks; The freedom of movement Mike mentioned would also be very beneficial. I figure if people can be uber snipers in Halo 2 and Call of Duty with it, why can't we drive a robot with it.

Also, if you have nothing positive to say about something Mike put so much hard work into (thank you mike, you allowed our electronics to spend time pursuing higher goals, rather than hours of repetitive yet easy soldering) then I ask you to simply stop posting in this thread.

Another thing that bothered me a little bit. They don't use joysticks to control autonomous planes; They wouldn't be autonomous then.

So is there even a way to use the xbox360 controller to control our robot? cuz we in our class have been talking about it for a while...

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by Choi9111

So is there even a way to use the xbox360 controller to control our robot? cuz we in our class have been talking about it for a while...

Yes, The adaptor is called the USB Chicklet. It is available from IFI.

[Choi9111]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

Yes, The adaptor is called the USB Chicklet. It is available from IFI.

ya duh i know that...i was talking more about programming wise... thanks for making me seem dumb.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by Choi9111

ya duh i know that...i was talking more about programming wise... thanks for making me seem dumb.

Then the answer is still yes. If the inputs are to sensitive, then you should scale them. For example, if you desire more control over the lower 1/3 of the throttle, just write a function that scales the input so the lower 1/3 of the output to the PWM is spread over a larger fraction of the joystick movement.

lets say you want more control over the output range 127-168. Scale the input by dividing the actual joystick value by a constant greater than 1 or multiply the joy value by a constant less than 1. You will need a conditional to evaluate if the joystick is <=168 in this example. If the condition is true you would apply the scaling to the input value.

#define SCALING_FACTOR .8

If (joy <= 168 && > 0)
{
unsinged char pwm;
pwm = scale(joy);
}

unsigned char scale(unsigned char joy_val)
{
new_pwm = joy_val * SCALING_FACTOR;
return new_pwm;
}

Now this does not account for the reverse values but you get the idea. This is just an example and probably wont work.

[Choi9111]

Thanks! i think ill try it out!