The best joystick?

[newton418]

Originally Posted by dfukuba

Joy sticks are very nice to use, but the one thing that i have found out from driving FIRST robots and Combat robots, was that.....

A joystick is fairly hard to control becausae you use your entire arm, or wrist. It also can put unwanted strain.

One thing that works very well is a small gimble that is controlled by your thumb (I.E. A video game controller)

I can see why your team is uneasy about going with that technology, but if you have the time i would play around with it. It makes things a world easier.

The control and strain all depends on how you hold the joystick. Last year we used two flightsticks, and instead of holding the joystick as they are designed, I set my wrists on the base and held the joystick right above where they flare out at the bottom. This placed my hands far away from the buttons, which wasn't a big problem for us, but if it is there are teams that have modified their joysticks so the buttons were conveniently placed for this driving style.

In the end, it's driver preference. If you go with a joystick similar to the ones provided, flightsticks are by far the most widly used; however, video game controlers are becoming popular, and there are many teams that have created innovative alternatives to better suite their robot.