Gamepads with Driver Station

[JNajarian]

Recently the two gamepads our team uses on a regular basis started taking a turn for the worst. I started to look for replacements and found these. I did some research and found some 3-4 year old threads that stated that the Driver Station does not recognise joysticks with external drivers. Is this still true?

[Aaron.Graeve]

That used to be true with the old blue box driver stations (2010) because they were "closed" and ran a flavor of Linux. I feel extremely confident saying that this would work with the modern driver station software, though you may need to install the drivers or do something to configure the game pad. If anyone has used this specific type of game pad, your input would be appreciated.

[geomapguy]

Originally Posted by JNajarian

Recently the two gamepads our team uses on a regular basis started taking a turn for the worst. I started to look for replacements and found these. I did some research and found some 3-4 year old threads that stated that the Driver Station does not recognise joysticks with external drivers. Is this still true?

If you're willing to pay the extra cash, try to get an XBOX 360 Controller. They work great with Windows (wonder why haha)

[Anthony4004]

Ya my team used that same gameplay this year and it worked perfectly fine! Of course, I personally do like the Logitech joysticks from driving for the ease for range of motion, bit to he his own! We do use game pads for any extras, and make our own control boxes.

[Joe Ross]

I would be surprised if that gamepad required drivers on XP or 7. I think the CD with drivers is probably for older operating systems, or to enable advanced features.

[Pratik Kunapuli]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

I would be surprised if that gamepad required drivers on XP or 7. I think the CD with drivers is probably for older operating systems, or to enable advanced features.

If I remember correctly, the OS will recognize this as a Windows device and then try to download the latest driver from the website.

[Dominick Ferone]

Originally Posted by JNajarian

Recently the two gamepads our team uses on a regular basis started taking a turn for the worst. I started to look for replacements and found these. I did some research and found some 3-4 year old threads that stated that the Driver Station does not recognise joysticks with external drivers. Is this still true?

My team last year used multiple joysticks and this year i put in the drivers for the wireless receiver to run my xbox 360 controllers and it worked like a charm last year it didn't since we didn't have the driver disc.

[otherguy]

Originally Posted by Dominick Ferone

My team last year used multiple joysticks and this year i put in the drivers for the wireless receiver to run my xbox 360 controllers and it worked like a charm last year it didn't since we didn't have the driver disc.

Note that wireless controllers were not considered legal last year (and will likely be the case this year as well). Look into getting wired controllers if that's the route you want to take.

R94
Other than the system provided by the ARENA, no other form of wireless communications shall be used to
communicate to, from, or within the OPERATOR CONSOLE.

Our team has been using the Logitech F310 (newegg, amazon - only $20 right now) controllers for the past 3 years with good results. The only problems we have are with the cables getting beat up due to the heavy use throughout the year.

[JNajarian]

Thanks for the help, we placed an order for two of them.