Hey CD,
Our team’s driver (control) station consists of a piece of plywood and two 2x4’s. It is built to last year’s specifications, which means it it too small for our laptop this year. We made it through BAE/GSR with the current driver station, but we would like to build a new one. Any ideas and/or pictures? We can use pretty much all common materials (wood, aluminum, lexan, pvc, etc.). I’d like to use PVC because of our team name, but that’s optional.
Thanks!
In 2009, our team designed and built a driver station that folds into a hexagon. Incredibly easy to carry, but last year we had to remove a section because the inspectors deemed it too long and we had to remove one of the sections. This year it is not and is working amazingly. I don’t have pictures on hand, but I will get you some at our next meeting, if you want.
That’d be really cool to see pictures. I’d be really interested to see how it works.
Team 610’s current driver station consists of a foam lined plastic briefcase. We modified the foam to have compartments to hold our laptop and two Logitech gamepads. It has been a great way to keep the entire driver station self contained and easy to transport. We also machined a hole in the side of it so we could connect the charger to the laptop without having to remove it from the case.
Do you use Flight Joysticks (KOP) or controllers? We use a large wood board with handles routed in the the ends without any issues. It creates a solid surface for the joysticks to pivot on without shifting and keeps them in order.
Funny story, as of our last regional we dropped our plexiglass driver station and the adhesive holding it together finally snapped. Currently, we’re rebuilding it from scratch using 80/20 and lexan. If you guys think wood is solid, wait until you have a full aluminum driver station.
Are you looking for something team-themed or just a sleek ultramodern look? because our is a long box made of stained wood, bound top and bottom with iron strips.
We also use a padded briefcase to house all of the OI components. We’re planning some modifications to make connectivity a bit easier, but for housing what we need (laptop, 2 controllers, and some custom circuitry), it works great. The biggest advantage I see over using a completely “open” OI setup is the fact that the briefcase can be easily carried or put on a cart to and from matches.
We’ve never had a good driver station so we made a quick and easy one in a few days for this year.
It’s plywood spray painted black with our ninja logo and number painted in gold on the bottom. There are also two small U-channel aluminum pieces for skids on the bottom. On top there is a groove for an LED strip that is connected to a switch and nine volt battery. On top of the wood is a sheet of clear plexiglass that makes it look smooth and then velcro for our joysticks and laptop and two bent aluminum handles to the sides.
Quick and easy and a major upgrade from our former particleboard pieces.
Our’s is in the shape of a sword. I don’t know if that helps but its just painted wood. It looks really cool. Maybe you guys should have a pirate theme using PVC
There’s a similar thread, but it’s old enough so that I wouldn’t expect anybody to hold it against you. This link has a lot of good-looking driver stations. It’s also got some 2537 representation 
We have an 19" laptop (the reason we can’t use a briefcase), 2 Attack 3 KOP joysticks, and a Cyborg X 3-axis joystick.
Just make sure it’s easy to plug up your laptop the cable for the field connection without putting the cable in a bind, the computer is up so it’s not pressing the boot so it releases the cable mid match and that the field supplied power cord, if you use it, is also able to plugged up.
If you make it out of PVC, make sure to the put some proper handles on it.