What features should we add when designing a new driver station? I’ve added features such as screens, place for consoles, and so on but what other features can i add?
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When you say driver station do you mean the dashboard/NI driverstation or the physical one that you set down and have your computer and all that? I think it’s the latter but can’t be too careful. And if you mean the physical one, when you say consoles do you mean controllers or the pc that runs the software or?
To be honest, I think that the features you want to see in your driverstation are completely team specific. You can find CAD examples from teams like 4414 and 148, but what you design should be unique to your needs.
Some questions that come to mind include:
- Is there only one driver, or is there an operator as well?
- How many controllers do I need?
- Do you plan on making a custom controller (button box) to integrate into the board?
- Is there adequate room for a laptop and charger to seat inside the console?
These threads also might help you for getting some ideas.
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Ah perfect. some things our team likes:
- Holders for everything on the DS (driver station). So like 3d printed mounts for controllers. Latches to hold the computer in pace. ect.
- Cable management holes and tie downs. Just having neat DS is a godsend. It’s very nice to have a space for every cable to go.
- We like to have a usb to ethernet dongle on hand. We’ve had bad luck with laptops and ethernet ports not playing nice.
- Have a small power strip that everything can plug into. This allows a 2 cable connection when connecting to the field (ethernet and power).
- Velcro on the bottom for keeping the DS in place.
- We like to put our match schedule on the DS.
- Don’t make the DS too unwieldy or heavy to handle. We find anything over 2 feet becomes annoying to carry around.
- Something often over looked is when the DS isn’t at the field. Designating a space in the pit or cart for the DS is very convenient.
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Just to add to the list of nice features:
Cable strain relief
“Simplify, then add lightness”
People often mention putting skateboard wheels on the DS (a truck on one end) but that’s not solving the root issue.
Heavy drivers’ stations suuuuuuck. DS with all the goodies packed in shouldn’t be more that 20 lbs; aim for sub-10. You’ll probably notice that FRC box tubing and gusset construction is not often appropriate to hit that goal. Wood and other cheap composites are good.
It’s worth it to spend a bit of cash and lower weight here, as a DS can (and should) easily last 4+ years.
Be aware of feature creep and remain flexible instead. Wood is nice because woodscrews, speed holes in aluminum can double as mounting holes, etc. It’s probably not smart to integrate whatever button board fad directly into the DS; favor having an adaptable platform, maybe even make an identical pair.
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Driver station? You just need a thin laptop and two Xbox controllers that plug into it. They all fit in a light backpack and take no effort. No need to overthink things.
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Spectrum is in the process of updating our operator console and we’ll publish the specs and CAD around the start of the build season. Here is a preview of what we have so far.
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Ask for a drum harness from the band room and drill two holes in the driver station allowing you to mount it on the harness , it’s great for demos and testing
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