White Paper Discuss: Playstation 2 Controller Adapter

[jakep]

Thread created automatically to discuss a document in the White Papers.

Playstation 2 Controller Adapter by jakep

[Greg Marra]

That's really cool, but the circuit looks fairly complicated to build and program.

You guys should consider building more and selling them to other teams. Considering that the price of a CH Flightstick on eBay is upwards of $40, you could help people get a better controller for their robot and make your team some extra money at the same time.

[pathew100]

Great job by the "geekTeam" of our robotics team. I'm the electrical/software mentor for team 862 and what they have done is amazing. Especially since they didn't even need to ask me for help! I had a major "How the heck did you do that?" moment when they first hooked it up and had it working on the breadboard.

So if you have any questions, ask the students!

Here's our website :www.lightningrobotics.com

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Will this also work with a PSone controller?

[GhostInTheShell]

It will work with PSOne controllers that have the analog sticks (The dual-shock analog controllers work)

[Joel J]

I had no idea you were allowed to connect a PIC between the "joystick" and PORTx of the OI.

[Not2B]

Originally Posted by Joel J.

I had no idea you were allowed to connect a PIC between the "joystick" and PORTx of the OI.

Yeah, we were nervous. Last year, I would say this would be right out. But this year...

Originally Posted by Manual

<R78> All equipment connected to the Joystick Ports of the IFI Operator Interface must be powered solely
through the power available through the port. External power sources of any type are not permitted on any
equipment connected to the Joystick Ports. Portable computing devices may not be connected to Joystick
input ports on the Operator Interface. Power-passive devices (e.g. joysticks that draw their power solely
through the IFI Operator Interface joystick port) are permitted.

I'd call this a power-passive device, as all power is comming from the OI. Then to look at the INTENT of the rule, all the PICs are doing is translating data, they aren't adding any value to the input or doing any calculations to drive the robot any better. So I hope we're OK. It's still up to the human to drive that sucker into a wall and fall over.

OR... another way too look at it...

We made our own joysticks. The joystick starts at the plug. An off the shelf PS2 controller is just one of the materials we used to make our control.

I hope!

[pathew100]

See also this thread on the Q&A:

Custom-circuit Controllers

This design is officially legal for FIRST competitions.

[acumenerratica]

Question about your control mapping...
It was unclear in the white paper (to my insomnia-addled brain, at least) whether both joysticks are mapped to the PIC. Is it possible to run tank drive simply from the two analog sticks of a PS2 controller using your adapter method?

Replies are greatly appreciated

[Not2B]

I'm not sure if you need 2 sets or one set... I'll have to ask the geeks. BUT - I can tell you that we drive tank style with the 2 sticks.

I'll see if I can ask the geekTeam more about it.

[jakep]

Yes, the two Y axes are sent to the OI, allowing for tank drive.

The X axis on either joystick on the ps2 controller is not sent to the OI, and is instead used to send digital signals. (4 per analog input on the OI, total of 8)

[phrontist]

Impressive! You deserve a Innovation In Control award, if you don't get it, they have no idea what they're doing!

(Espescially because it was student designed and built)

[Ellery]

Originally Posted by jakep

Yes, the two Y axes are sent to the OI, allowing for tank drive.

The X axis on either joystick on the ps2 controller is not sent to the OI, and is instead used to send digital signals. (4 per analog input on the OI, total of 8)

Very nice work! Is your white paper complete enough to have my students try to tackle it as well? I looked through it and it seems to be missing some of the components for the PCB.

What size diodes and Resistors are required for the completion of this project?
Also is there anything missing from the whitepaper I should know about?

Thanks in advance for bringing teams to the next generation!

Ellery

[6600gt]

Originally Posted by Manual
<R78> All equipment connected to the Joystick Ports of the IFI Operator Interface must be powered solely
through the power available through the port. External power sources of any type are not permitted on any
equipment connected to the Joystick Ports. Portable computing devices may not be connected to Joystick
input ports on the Operator Interface. Power-passive devices (e.g. joysticks that draw their power solely
through the IFI Operator Interface joystick port) are permitted.

Is a PIC really considered as a portable computing device?
Because I want to use one for modifying non real time values form the OI.

[jakep]

The design we made was used legally in two regionals and nationals last year, so it doesn't really count as a computer device.

Also, to all teams wanting to make one of these for this years competition, we, the creators of the design, must advise you about an issue we had with it. We had some power regulation issues, which cause the thing to occasionally drop connection during competitions (works fine when the OI is powered from an AC adapter, but not always in competitions when all OIs are off of one power supply). We have some ideas about updating the design to fix this problem, like adding a capacitor to help prevent short lived power drops. We don't have a solution yet, but we will probably be updating the white paper when we do. Please proceed at your own risk when building these, at least until we get a fix available. (It should be a simple solution, not requiring new boards to be made if you already did)