OI control box, LED questions

[Bryan Herbst]

I'm still a bit lost here.

You said that I would likely be able to run an LED display through the dashboard port, so how would I do it? Which pins would I hook it up to? How do I reference these pins in the code?

[Alan Anderson]

Displaying a number is more involved than simply connecting LEDs to pins. Since you said you wanted a four-digit display, I was suggesting that you use the dashboard output to do it. Unless you want to design and program your own circuit to decode the data stream, it's going to involve a computer with a serial port.

[Bryan Herbst]

We already (sorta) haver a plan for that.

We are going to be hooking the OI up to something similar to this (figure 6, near the bottom of the page). All we need right now is a way to interface it with the OI. Currently, our plan only needs two analog outputs from the OI.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Tanis

All we need right now is a way to interface it with the OI. Currently, our plan only needs two analog outputs from the OI.

The OI has no analog outputs. It has eight pins that are designed to drive LEDs with no additional circuitry, and it has the dashboard serial data connection. That's all.

[Bryan Herbst]

Okay, well sounds like were just going to scrap this idea then.

Final question- what you recommend making the control box out of? The entire platform, including the area we plan to put the OI and joysticks on. Currently we have a bit of lexane sitting around, but we're open to other suggestions. Also, what do you recommend doing to color/paint designs on the control area?