Game Controller for control

[LordKronus]

Does anyone think that using a game controller is a good idea. It seems like in our gammer type age, it would make sense to ride on our members natural strengths. Then again would a game controller have enough buttons to accommodate the robot complex needs of control....hmmm. Comments?

[mtaman02]

Depends on what Game Controller you want to use and will be comfortable to your Drivers hands. Rule of thumb would be to let them (The Drivers) pick out the controller. As far as it having enough buttons on it, I think the payload or the Stratedgy at hand should be spread out equally. I mean at the very most the Driver driving the robot needs but 2 joysticks (1 to Drive and the other to do other things) and the the other Driver can use 1 - 2 joysticks to manipulate the scoring capabilities. Basically one driver should not be doing all the work and having a controller with an over excessive amount of buttons would make driving the robot very confusing. The only reason I can think of having 1 controller with alot of buttons on it would be that it would only be that controller to be used for one driver instead of having 2 controllers to that one driver. It all depends on what you want to do. I see it as a good idea to use whatever your comfortable with b/c it teaches you how to make the controller adapt to something else and program it to do things that the makers of the controller didn't even think about. I've seen a wide variety of PS and other controllers being used at the FIRST events so it can be done and the few teams that I talked to at various events that went through with making their controllers said it was very hard but well worth it b/c they feel that it gives them more control over the robot than what FIRST provides.

To put it simply, judge if you want to go ahead with making your own Game Controller by asking your self this: Will the robot easily be able to be driven with the built drive train setup?, Will it be easy to program it to do this task? Some people like the Joystick approach with tank (belt) drive system b/c well it feels like they're driving a tank. Others like to use a steering wheel with / without pedals for a wheeled or tank (belt) drive system b/c it makes them feel like they're driving in a car.

[GMAdan]

My team is going to use a combonation of game controllers and joysticks. I believe the operator will use a game contoller and the driver with use two joysticks.

[PhillyShock]

Our team plans on using solely the game controller, with the toggle buttons driving the robot and shoulder buttons working the manipulator. However, we do have a fallback of just using the normal joysticks if this plan fails.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Using the game controller for driving the robot is always going to be a risk because it has to be as close to perfect (if not) as it can be to get your desired functions. A controller for just a part of the robot ( Like our SNES controller last year for our shotter) is much better when you dont have to move it distances or have multiple variables in the way.