Ambidextrous Joysticks

[DanDon]

This year, and last, we have been searching for hours upon hours for ambidextrous joysticks with trim adjustors that connect through a game port (Connectible to the robot).

Has anyone had any luck finding joysticks? (We are still using the old sticks from a couple of years ago and are having two problems: There are not enough buttons (Only two per stick); And we are not sure how many seasons they have left in them.

Thanks,

Dan

[Cory]

Originally Posted by dhoizner

This year, and last, we have been searching for hours upon hours for ambidextrous joysticks with trim adjustors that connect through a game port (Connectible to the robot).

Has anyone had any luck finding joysticks? (We are still using the old sticks from a couple of years ago and are having two problems: There are not enough buttons (Only two per stick); And we are not sure how many seasons they have left in them.

Thanks,

Dan

There's a very similar model to the older joysticks, that have the trigger, plus four buttons mounted on the top of the stick. I believe it's the CH Flightstick Plus (or Pro, perhaps?). They've been discussed on here before, and I believe someone may have posted a link you can find them at.

[KenWittlief]

you can get anything you want
at Alices Resturant

(or else on ebay)

http://cgi.ebay.com/CH-Flightstick-F...QQcmdZViewItem

[Al Skierkiewicz]

In many cases, you can purchase a desirable USB joystick and remove and replace the cable and interface board to bring out the right functions to the appropriate pins on a game connector. One caveat, not all manufacturers use 100K pots on their USB joysticks. (No, I do not have a list of those that do.)

[Ted Boucher]

Originally Posted by dhoizner

(We are still using the old sticks from a couple of years ago and are having two problems: There are not enough buttons (Only two per stick); And we are not sure how many seasons they have left in them.

Well, I have also been searching for a new gameport joystick to relpace our old CH Flightsticks. CH does supply parts to fix their joysticks at your own risk. (link to site) I have never tried this, but it is a good way to make those joysicks last alittle longer if they ever do break.

[MChapman]

Yea i agree the flightstick pro universal stick we've been using are great. We've had them for about 5 years and they are still working. Even though i'm not a driver, i've had the chance to use them after competitions and what not and they really are easy to use compaired to our other controllers, plus they had the right amount of buttons for us to us. Good luck.

[tfedullo]

but is there anywhere we can buy them new? or any place that still manufactures them?

[Gdeaver]

CH has an industrial line of joy sticks that come in many handle configurations. They can be spec'd for 100K pots. You would have to make a mounting and add some buttons.

[John Gutmann]

Try to contact the manufacturer maybe they could tell you something useful.

[Cory]

http://www.chproducts.com/retail/j_flight_pro.html (This would only work assuming you could use Al's method of converting from USB. $90 is also WAY expensive for one of these).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FLIGH...spagenameZWDVW

[Greg Needel]

A while back i contacted CH to find out if they might still have some of the old joysticks in a warehouse somewhere (with the intention of using a set for me and selling the rest to the community) She assured me that they don't have any left and i was not the first person to ask them for it. I bought some off ebay, and that seemed to work for me but there are lots of good options posted in this thread.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

In many cases, you can purchase a desirable USB joystick and remove and replace the cable and interface board to bring out the right functions to the appropriate pins on a game connector. One caveat, not all manufacturers use 100K pots on their USB joysticks. (No, I do not have a list of those that do.)

We use the Logitech Dual Action (dual stick) gamepads and wire them up to a standard gameport cables from old joysticks.

I too have no idea which USB sticks/pads have 100k pots. The Logitechs use 10k & so do the Saiteks. The workaround to that is to clamp the low end to ground, which creates a true voltage divider. The OI will interpret them in a range from 46 to 210, with 127 in the center as usual. So, to get a range from 0 to 254, the program will either need to scale the inputs, or use them to index an array that maps 46 to zero at one end and 210 to 254 at the other. We do the later because we use an exponential ramp mapping anyway.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by dhoizner

This year, and last, we have been searching for hours upon hours for ambidextrous joysticks with trim adjustors that connect through a game port (Connectible to the robot).

Has anyone had any luck finding joysticks? (We are still using the old sticks from a couple of years ago and are having two problems: There are not enough buttons (Only two per stick); And we are not sure how many seasons they have left in them.

Thanks,

Dan

While building shelving today, our team decided to take apart one of the new right-handed joysticks from last year's kit of parts. Although many teams may not like certain features about these, such as their wobbliness or that they are only right handed, we found a simple solution.

Once you take the handle off them, they become a ton stiffer (from the lack of weight). The handles on them are basically a round shaft, with two flattened sides to prevent the handle from rotating. They also have eight buttons inside them that can be rewired into new buttons. Our team is planning to use them this year, but with custom made handles in them (like our operator interface for 2005).

Before: (Plain handleless joystick)



After: (Custom handle and trigger)



The old CH Flightstick joysticks that we customized for our 2005 operator interface worked well. With new smaller handles, you should be able to easily customize the new KOP joysticks. Our team will probably use customized KOP joysticks this year (similar in appearance to our 2005 ones above), since the old CH Flightsticks are getting harder and harder to find without cannabilizing old operator interfaces.

[KenWittlief]

there could be a problem with that. I dont know what the rules will be this year, but in the past you were not allowed to customize the joysticks they provided in any way (mostly to prevent teams from damaging them or the operator interface) and then wanting FIRST to replace them.

Was this rule still in effect last year? You can make your own joystick input devices, but if you use the supplied ones you cannot open the case?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

there could be a problem with that. I dont know what the rules will be this year, but in the past you were not allowed to customize the joysticks they provided in any way (mostly to prevent teams from damaging them or the operator interface) and then wanting FIRST to replace them.

Was this rule still in effect last year? You can make your own joystick input devices, but if you use the supplied ones you cannot open the case?

Last season, the basic rule was that it had to be powered by the OI, and couldn't be a computer. Everything else (switches, pots, joysticks, etc.) is fair game.