custom button panel

[ttnn58]

hi!
my team is trying to build a custom button panel to control our robot, and we have some questions:
- i have read somewhere that the button panel is made of some kind of I/O microcontroller with buttons connected to it. is there a specific one we must use? because we have a microcontroller in our lab (i can't remember his name) which can be used as HID.
- how do we make our program to "read" this kind of input? (we use java)

thanks in advance!

[Bkeeneykid]

Assuming you don't use FRC rule breaking space magic, you'll most likely just be building a joystick with no axes. You can use the TI Launchpad you received in your 2015 KOP, instructions here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_Operator_Interface_for_FIRST_Robo tics_Competition. You can then read it from code just like any other joystick button. You don't have to use this one, any HID compliant joystick will work. This one just has FRC support.

Side note: You can read from autonomous, it just reads the last joystick value right before autonomous begins.

[ttnn58]

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

Assuming you don't use FRC rule breaking space magic, you'll most likely just be building a joystick with no axes. You can use the TI Launchpad you received in your 2015 KOP, instructions here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_Operator_Interface_for_FIRST_Robo tics_Competition. You can then read it from code just like any other joystick button. You don't have to use this one, any HID compliant joystick will work. This one just has FRC support.

Side note: You can read from autonomous, it just reads the last joystick value right before autonomous begins.

no axes indeed XD

but we won't use this one, i think we don't have it anymore.
we have some kind of prototyping kit.
if the comuputer can read the signal from the device, the robot code will just "find" it?
or we need another software for it?

[ttnn58]

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

Assuming you don't use FRC rule breaking space magic, you'll most likely just be building a joystick with no axes. You can use the TI Launchpad you received in your 2015 KOP, instructions here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_Operator_Interface_for_FIRST_Robo tics_Competition. You can then read it from code just like any other joystick button. You don't have to use this one, any HID compliant joystick will work. This one just has FRC support.

Side note: You can read from autonomous, it just reads the last joystick value right before autonomous begins.

UPDATE: the microcontroller we have is CY8CKIT-003 PSoC® 3 FirstTouch™ Starter Kit

http://www.cypress.com/documentation...ch-starter-kit

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by ttnn58

UPDATE: the microcontroller we have is CY8CKIT-003 PSoC® 3 FirstTouch™ Starter Kit

http://www.cypress.com/documentation...ch-starter-kit

This one is much harder to work with. The basics is the board that you connect your buttons to acts just like a joystick. You then load special software/firmware onto the board itself, but the computer you plug it into basically sees it as just another joystick. I have this specific board, but I don't know if it can act like a HID joystick. A relatively cheap option is the Teensy boards, which are easily programmed using Arduino and can show up as a joystick without much effort.

[ttnn58]

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

This one is much harder to work with. The basics is the board that you connect your buttons to acts just like a joystick. You then load special software/firmware onto the board itself, but the computer you plug it into basically sees it as just another joystick. I have this specific board, but I don't know if it can act like a HID joystick. A relatively cheap option is the Teensy boards, which are easily programmed using Arduino and can show up as a joystick without much effort.

you have to write a special software, or the comupter just sees the inputs?
and i am pretty sure it can act like an HID, we have it because it was used for a simmilar purpose.
and thanks for the help!

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by ttnn58

you have to write a special software, or the comupter just sees the inputs?
and i am pretty sure it can act like an HID, we have it because it was used for a simmilar purpose.
and thanks for the help!

The computer has no special software. All the custom software that makes it reads the buttons is on the micro processor. Again, I don't have any experience with PSoC boards at all, so I can't help with programming that.

[ttnn58]

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

The computer has no special software. All the custom software that makes it reads the buttons is on the micro processor. Again, I don't have any experience with PSoC boards at all, so I can't help with programming that.

ok.
thank you very much for your guidance!

[Peyton Yeung]

If you have an arduino there is a software called unojoy that uses an arduino board and acts as a joystick.

[eStop Robotics]

Originally Posted by ttnn58

hi!
my team is trying to build a custom button panel to control our robot, and we have some questions:
- i have read somewhere that the button panel is made of some kind of I/O microcontroller with buttons connected to it. is there a specific one we must use? because we have a microcontroller in our lab (i can't remember his name) which can be used as HID.
- how do we make our program to "read" this kind of input? (we use java)

thanks in advance!

You may find the Custom Control Interface (CCI) from eStop Robotics LLC to be a good simple solution to your "custom button panel" project.

The CCI requires no additional software and integrates easily with the FRC supported programming environments.

You can find more information on the following page at eStop Robotics:
https://www.estoprobotics.com/estore...d&productId=33

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by eStop Robotics

You may find the Custom Control Interface (CCI) from eStop Robotics LLC to be a good simple solution to your "custom button panel" project.

The CCI requires no additional software and integrates easily with the FRC supported programming environments.

You can find more information on the following page at eStop Robotics:
https://www.estoprobotics.com/estore...d&productId=33

Interesting product, from a company I've not heard of yet. One concern, there doesn't seem to be many button inputs. If you do a autonomous switcher, that can be 5 inputs all by itself. Is there any way of increasing this? Also, do you have any way of doing the outputs in WPIlib like the MSP430 can?

[jSchnitz]

I'll second the eStop CCI board, we've used it for the past 4 or so years on all our button boxes. It's incredibly easy, no need to do anything with the board besides plug it into a computer.

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

Interesting product, from a company I've not heard of yet. One concern, there doesn't seem to be many button inputs. If you do a autonomous switcher, that can be 5 inputs all by itself. Is there any way of increasing this? Also, do you have any way of doing the outputs in WPIlib like the MSP430 can?

I would recommend the Dashboard be used for autonomous switching - it saves physical space on the custom button box as well as button inputs. Also if you decide to add an autonomous mode (or 24), it's easier to add an option virtually than physically.

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by jSchnitz

I'll second the eStop CCI board, we've used it for the past 4 or so years on all our button boxes. It's incredibly easy, no need to do anything with the board besides plug it into a computer.



I would recommend the Dashboard be used for autonomous switching - it saves physical space on the custom button box as well as button inputs. Also if you decide to add an autonomous mode (or 24), it's easier to add an option virtually than physically.

Yeah sure, you have a crap ton of autonomous modes. In the past, we've found issues with the dashboard not loading in time for us to select autonomous modes. I'll check this option out, but I really prefer a physical switch, which has less points of error (for us).

[Foster]

I've used this Adafruit Bluefruit EZ-Key - 12 Input Bluetooth HID Keyboard Controller at about $20.

You wire up switches to the board. It connects to the laptop via Bluetooth. You can program the board to be a sudo keyboard with any key chord combination you want. (ie a,A, ctl-A, Alt-A, ctl-shift-alt-A, etc. )

You can use any kind of switch. There are places you can get joysticks with switches on the axis.

Not sure what the FRC rules are around bluetooth keyboards.

I've used these to make a wall button setup that talks to a home control computer, fun box for the grandmuchin, and working on a Kerbal Space Command console.

[RyanN]

I've been working on a project for this. Team Fusion has been using this for several years and I made a new revision that fixed a few issues for Garnet Squadron.

Currently I'm working on taking LabVIEW out of the equation and relying on Python and the wxPython extension.

Essentially, the board is an Arduino Mega 2560. The only special chip is the LED driver, which is a constant current driver made for driving LEDs. I have the output set at 20mA, which is very common with LEDs. It's easy enough to change though.



Here's the control board Garnet Squadron made for this year's robot:


Finally, below is the Python code in action. I'm currently working on a simulator because lets face it... I don't want to carry around the driver station everywhere I go.



The good news with the simulator is it works exactly the same as the real board. You can unplug/plug it in and toggle every input as well as see every output. Furthermore, since it works exactly the same as the real board, you can use the simulator to control the robot, or your simulated robot. The simulated robot with simulated button panel is where this can really shine.

This code isn't finished yet, but when it is, the GUI will not be shown by default. Instead, there is a taskbar icon that indicates the status of the control board. Green means good; red means bad.



Is this in mass production? No... I need to tweak a few more hardware things. For basic inputs such as switches and potentiometers and with LED outputs, it's great. There are some problems with running servos. They're interfering with the analog inputs. All the design files and software are in our repository here.