Sweet looking robot joystick.....

[Adam Y.]

Check this out. An unmodified playstation 2 controller interfaced to a basic stamp 2. Hehehe. It is kind of hard to tell from that picture but I do believe that it looks intact and since the thing works on a basic stamp then you should be able to interfact it to an IFI controller right?? I love this magazine.

http://www.nutsvolts.com/toc_Pages/jun03toc.htm#

[Ian W.]

if i'm not mistaken, i believe that the next OI will indeed have two PSX ports, although I'm not sure if that information was ever supposed to be released, or if it's even true. i'm not sure if i would perfer that to what we have now, but i guess it'd be pretty cool. except that now i'd wiggle around while driving, cause of the whole "move the controller cause you think it's going to help turn the robot faster" thing. like when you play a racing game on your PS2/XBox/GC. yeah. we'll all be cool then...

[DanLevin247]

Originally posted by Ian W.
except that now i'd wiggle around while driving, cause of the whole "move the controller cause you think it's going to help turn the robot faster" thing. like when you play a racing game on your PS2/XBox/GC. yeah. we'll all be cool then...

That's hillarious, everyone does that! Some people really get into it too! Not only will people do that, you'll get an increase in people involuntarily throwing their controllers to the ground after a match.

[KevnMajikskech]

'daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bulls'

[mtaman02]

it would even be better if it had the vibrating motors in the controllers to just like PS1

[GregTheGreat]

Originally posted by Mike522
it would even be better if it had the vibrating motors in the controllers to just like PS1

I believe that that controller should have the cibrating motors in it. Most of the SONY analog made controllers do.

It would be cool to drive a robot with a Play Station controller. You would probably see a lot of PS2 Addicts as drivers, lol.

[FotoPlasma]

Lots of things would be cool, but they only are cool if you actually do them.

Check out this webpage for more information on pinouts for popular gaming consoles, along with links to more Playstation info.

If you have any spare controllers lying around, it could be an awesome little project.

[Raven_Writer]

Honestly, I think it'd be sweet!

I know when we did our steering wheel for the robot, it was reall cool.

If our team does the PS2 or whatever controller this year, I'd be one up for driving for sure (I play my PS2 almost everyday for atleast 2 hrs., during the summer it's longer).

[josh_johnson]

Originally posted by Adam Y.
I do believe that it looks intact and since the thing works on a basic stamp then you should be able to interfact it to an IFI controller right??

Not quite, as the IFI Operator interface is what collects the data from the joysticks/potentiometers and buttons/switches, not the Basic Stamp itself. Nearly all modern video game controllers use a clock and a multiplexed system that sends several values along the same wire just at different times. You could possibly build a box to generate a clock and demultiplex this signal into several lines.

With a quick search on video game controller pin-outs I found this which lists the pin-outs for several older game systems.The ones listed below have non-multiplexed data-lines and would be simple to wire to the OI.
*Atari 2600
*Atari Enhanced
*Sega Genesis (note that only the B and C buttons can be detected each time the input is read, A and start are multiplexed with these two using pin 7 as a selector)
*Sega Master System
*TurboGrafx

It would be pretty cool to see a team use Atari controllers for the robot, although the digital rather than analog joysticks might make it hard to drive.

[Gadget470]

I can't wait until someone figures out how to hook up a "WASD" configuration and a mouse to drive. Gamers would be proud.

[Joe Matt]

I really want to have the robot steered from your perspective instead of the robot's, much like a video game, but oh well....

[Bduggan04]

Originally posted by josh_johnson
the digital rather than analog joysticks might make it hard to drive.

I agree. No variable speed would make for a reckless and finesse lacking match. Although it would still be possible to use some kind of acceleration algorithm.

[Hinkel Y.]

having vibrating controllers that shakes everytime you bumped into something would be awesome, and lots of work to do... It'd be cool if we see one this year!

[ZACH P.]

Somebody should wire a DDR mat as a controller.

[FotoPlasma]

Originally posted by ZACH P.
Somebody should wire a DDR mat as a controller.

No.