Years of requests finally pays off. We now have USB control imput, which sent a collective nerdgasm across the world today.
But, what do you want to do with it? There’s has got to be some crazy cool ideas you thought of at the announcement. Here, we disregard programming skill or other factors; let the ideas flow like water. Anything works.
My first idea was when David announced the ability to target 5 targets with the camera. Before the game was reveiled, I thought it would be sick to be able to create a ball turret that could hit in 5 different places, controlled by the PS2 (or upcoming Xbox 360) Guitar Hero controllers. Wouldn’t exactly work for Rack ‘n’ Roll, thou. =P
i think it would be awesome to use an xbox 360 controller to control the robot
their would be so many possibilities and you may only need 1 driver/operator
i like the new part and hope my team will consider using it to add some excitement to the usually boringa controls
Show off your killer robot and your mad dancing skills all at once! Keep the rhythm in your feet as your robot flies 'round the field, danc’n to da beat!
Besides, the Chicklet is a USB host. Laptops are also hosts. Two hosts cannot simply talk to each other (without special hardware and software in between).
<R83> All equipment connected to the joystick ports of the 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 can not be connected to joystick input ports on the Operator Interface. Power-passive
devices (e.g. joysticks that draw their power solely through the Operator Interface
joystick port) are permitted. The one exception to this rule is Innovation First Incorporated
USB adapters (IFI Part Number USB-CHICKLET) may be used to connect USB devices to
the joystick ports of the Operator Interface. If used, this USB adapter must be powered with
a 7.2V battery similar to the back-up battery. Teams can not use power from the
competition port or any other source to power the USB adapter. The USB adapter must be
positioned within the OPERATOR CONSOLE so that the indicator lights may be seen during
inspection and operation in a match.
I’m still not sure what the reasoning is behind this, but there it is. Sorry.
their would be so many possibilities and you may only need 1 driver/operator
If that is the case, is there anything helpful we could use the second driver for? It was probably left in the rules in case someone did want to use old system, but maybe there could be a potential advantage to be gained…
The second driver can pass tubes to the human player if you find that that helps. Probably because you can only hold one tube on the robot at once, the human player won’t really be rushed. The second driver could also help to coach the main driver, or help communicate from your drive team to the other drive teams on your alliance
Keep in mind that you are still limited in as to how many buttons are available to you even though you are plugging into usb it is really still limited by gamport capabilities.
I believe the reason is so that one may not offload the RC using, for example, a laptop on the OI side. By receiving sensor info via the dashboard port and sending PWM info and digital output info through the joystick ports, this would be possible.
The problem with using items such as an Xbox360 controller or a PS3 controller is that while you have a USB interface it is still limited by the amount of data transfer offered by the game port. An USB device will have its functions limited by this lack of transfer power. It will only be possible for a user to define several buttons and joy sticks as specified on the USB Chicklets website.
