How to connect switches to the Driver Station

[Bryven]

Hello,

I remember seeing a guide last year on how to wire toggle switches and other sensors to the driver-station. Does anyone know if something like that still exists? Last year we saw a team use forklift controls and some toggle switches and we'd like to mimic some of that. Ideally we want to be able to read the state of toggle switches on our driver station in order to cause our robot to perform specific actions like lighting up lights, etc.

Thanks!

[Nirvash]

You should be able to do that with Cypress FirstTouch I/O Module, that you got in the kit. Or this.

[Bryven]

Does that board show up on the Driver Station or do we need to use different code to interface with it?

[Blackphantom91]

The cypress board is an I/O receiver which you can use in a board on the side of your driver station. This interface connects usb and communicates though programing as values or "pressed or not pressed". So you could add toggle switches to your teams driver stations. You also can create a smart dashboard to get readings and layouts on the classmates screen that you can reference while playing.

[Nirvash]

If you have never used the I/O board I would look at this to set it up.

After you configure it, it should show up in your Dashboard like so.

Which should easily be able to be added into your code using the appropriate methods for you language. Ex. Labview

E-stop also offers a nice breakout for it, if you don't want to make your own.(Which is what I am currently trying!)
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0543.htm

[z_beeblebrox]

Our team has disassembled a game pad and attached the connectors for potentiometers on one of the game pad's sticks to other potentiometers on an RC car pistol grip controller. The same thing could be done with buttons and switches.