I have just discovered a rule that I beleive to be new. In section 4.2 of the robot manual, rule C1, it says that, among other things, a joystick “may not be tampered with, modified, or adjusted in any way.” It goes on to say that “Tampering includes drilling, cutting, machining, gluing, rewiring, etc.”
This disturbs me because in the past my team and I have always drilled holes in the bottom of the joystick to mount it, we have occasionally rewired them so that the digital switches are outside of the joystick, and we have always epoxied the calibration knobs in place to avoid them being moved and messing up our programming. Can someone “tell me it ain’t so?” Thanks.
not completely sure on how the rule has been ‘read’ by others… but I believe it was discussed at one time in the past 24 hours… try searching… if I find it I will post the link.
[edit]maybe this will help:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=15807&highlight=joysticks
[/edit]
Yep, I didn’t care for this new rule either. If we can buy $200 worth of electronics (buttons, potentiometers and the like), and a joystick is just a few pots and buttons in a plastic housing, then what is wrong with modifying them??
We too, have drilled holes in them to mount them to a base and drilled holes for the addition of extra buttons and LED’s as opposed to mounting them in a separate “project box”.
I don’t get the logic on this one.
Dave…
This is not a new rule! Technically, if you have been doing this stuff it has been illegal, but nobody has ever cared. If you doubt me, check out last years rules (it was C1 back then, too):
http://www2.usfirst.org/2002comp/robot_app.pdf
The same goes for all the teams that used the old (2001 and earlier) 4amp chargers.
I was afraid that it wasn’t a new rule. Well, now I know what it feels like to be a cheater (hehe).
Three years ago, we machine-screw-and-bolt mounted both our joysticks under a plexi panel, a sexy ice blue (for our bot, Blizzard). I busted a gut trying to get spare joysticks (just in case) from CH, while waiting for First to give a definitive answer to whether this would be legal.
We got through GLR and the Mickey Mouse finals 
with no objections, and no definitive answer.
My opinion is you can drill a few careful holes in the case, but don’t mess with the internal circuits. (These joysticks are REALLY good, IMHO, but might not like the caress of a careless set of fingers messing inside.
In other years, we’ve used joysticks for steering, and separate “pots” not mounted in the joystick but in separate boxes for controlling other analog inputs to out machines. We didn’t ever have to modify the internals of a joystick.
If you’re going to mount the joysticks by screwing them in, I’d recommend you use the existing screw holes (they’re under the little rubber feet on the old on I have) and just use longer screws. Even this would be illegal from the rules, but we need an answer from FIRST.