Best Non-Xbox Controller for Swerve

[robocodepodcast]

Our team is looking for recommendations for a non-xbox controller for our swerve chassis. We do want thumb sticks for control. Any suggestions?

[viggy96]

PlayStation DualSense/DualShock

Gulikit KingKong 2 Pro (has hall effect sticks and triggers)

[bscharles]

We bought two GameSir G7 SE controllers to try out this year, since they have hall effect thumbsticks (and triggers) which have less drift / lower deadband required. Similar to the KingKong 2 Pro, but I read some mixed reviews on quality of the Kingkong 2 and decided to go with the G7 SE. Also more cost effective than official Microsoft brand Xbox controllers.

[Ankur-Raghavan]

We’ve used Logitech flight control sticks like this one: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/logitech-extreme-3d-pro-gaming-joystick-silver-black/5796515.p

The problem is you will need to find a left handed one or make your own if you want to have two sticks. We couldn’t find it easily, so we used the rotation of the stick for the angular velocity on swerve.

[JimB1918]

We are currently using Stadia controllers. Their weight, shape and button qty is excellent. The sticks return to true zero at the center, and LT and RT are buttons rather than triggers. When we are in the lab, we can unplug them and use them as BT controllers to walk around with the robot for testing.

Lastly, there is a command wrapper for Stadia controller in WPILib (just like Xbox, PS4, and PS5 controllers) because I contributed it this year.

[kingc95]

Seconded on this one. We have 3 of these now, started with 2. We used them for Driver and Operator for Tank, Xdrive and this year swerve. They all work well because of the joysticks Z rotation. You tie this to the turning of the robot and it feels really really natural to drive. Then the x and y linear axis are your driving and strafing.

We love these joysticks for the sheer amount of buttons. We finally have one starting to drift after 6 years of abuse.

[Cynosure]

Logitech F710

[joemost]

Curious how you guys have liked those? I had thought about going to those

[Peter_Matteson]

As I’ve said before these are way better than a joypad, They are more accurate and don’t have the dead band issues.

HE1 SERIES 3 AXIS SLIM Z | Controllers

We have 3-4 sets of them now and the drivers love them. they are typically used in industrial equipment.

Here is how we have them implemented them last year and we will probably continue to tweak this going forward:

Best Optimal Joystick For Swerve?

We are still using them. We ended up getting a second set this year and I rebuilt our control box to better work with them. I have a full list of the options here for you: Drop in Standard 3-axis 1 button Round Limiter USB Here are some photos of the control box my niece and I made. One of the seniors last year came up with the basic design. I actually don’t have a picture of the final as used configuration but I think you can see I overbuilt it a bit to protect all the wires and ports. …

[kingc95]

@Peter_Matteson

We have 3-4 sets of them now

This is alot to spend on control components. You’re looking at $227.50 each. For comparison 1 of those joysticks is 5x more expensive than the Logitech 3D extreme. Is it going to last 5 times as long and be as useful? This would be only good for driving and you’ll still need other arcade buttons or inputs for everything else.

It seems like you’ve had them for about a year or so, just curious what the long term will be and how often they’ll need to be replaced/how hard are they to fix

[Peter_Matteson]

These are a ruggedized design for industrial equipment made by companies like Caterpillar and John Deere so they are designed for a ~20 year life span and will outlast any game console controller you buy off the shelf. We go through 2-3 of Logitech operator gamepads every season because they don’t last through the abuse. I do think that the Ruffy controls are a greater value long term.

We typically use our control setups for a long period of time once we find something our drivers like and planning to use high quality components is a long term investment in have a higher quality system that will still be working in 5 years or more. I don’t want to have to worry about our basic drive controls failing because someone tossed a cheap gamepad and something broke.

Also to be completely up front Ruffy donated the joysticks as a sponsorship which is why we have so many sets. We were however planning on purchasing them before the arrangement was made.

[AdamF]

We use Thrustmaster T16000Ms for our drive controls. Haven’t used them with swerve quite yet, but we decided to use flight sticks after watching 1732 control their swerve robots at some offseason events, and the T16000M was recommended here as a good ambidextrous option.

@JimB1918

Lastly, there is a command wrapper for Stadia controller in WPILib (just like Xbox, PS4, and PS5 controllers) because I contributed it this year.

I’ll have to find the 3 Stadia controllers I have laying around the house. Would be a much better option than the beat up Logitech gamepads we have been using for operators or offseason robot controls.

[MOCTA1189]

My team would definitely recommend going with GameSir.

We love their controllers. Particularly this one: https://a.co/d/4D9LcC7

@Gavin0 and @person4268 know more than me as to why.

[person4268]

That specific one’s quite nice imo for being hall effect for relatively cheap, and feels pretty good in the hand to me. Software’s kinda meh (though pretty featureful), wouldn’t install it on the driver computer because opening it briefly disconnects the controller so it can be configured (iirc). I could not get the paddle buttons on the back to show up as buttons in the DS, but they could be remapped to other ones. More than usable as a driver controller, I’d say.

Rumble’s pretty decent on it too, if you ever decide that’s a good idea for indicating stuff to your driver (we’ve been considering the idea but it just doesn’t seem to be a practical one to us unfortunately)