Does anyone know where to get the left handed version of the white joystick (the one in the kit with the 4 buttons and top hat)?
I’m working on a control system for lefties so that the lefties on the team have a chance at driving.
Thanks
no i dea, shadow flame has posted in the cdswap for one as well… i dont think they exist … maybe first might be able to sort it out for next year if you contact them lol…
Agreed, I’m fairly certain there in no such animal.
I think that means that left handed people are out doing interesting things instead of playing video games?!?
If the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body then left handers are the only ones in “their right mind”.
lol…
I’m not sure on the rules about joystick, but i know yo ucan get some pretty cheap nice joysticks… like the lovely saitek ones, and i believe they are customisable
y in the first place give you 2 left sticks?
id luv to knoow
Keep in mind it needs to be a joystick that utilizes the gameport, not USB, which pretty much all the current generation joysticks use.
If somebody can generate a “point cloud” of the surfaces of one of the current sitcks, inside and out, I’m pretty sure I can reverse engineer them well enough to create a mirror image model and then turn that into a part. You would have to put all the buttons and such back together yourself though.
A point cloud is a collection of points that represent a surface or surfaces. They are often used in reverse engineering or to translate the designer’s hand shaped prototype into a CAD model. I have access to the equipment to build the prototype and CAD. But I do not have access to the sort of scanning equipment required to generate the point cloud. If somebody out there does, and is willing to work co-operatively, then we can solve this problem. If the demand is really high, like 50 or more teams wanting left-handed sticks, then I might just take ours apart and pay somebody to generate the cloud. With some of the laser systems out there, it would just take a few minutes. But if I have to do that, then I will of course require some small compensation.
I have been planning to pursue this anyway, but while the time you can spend working on your robot is limited, the time to work on your OI is not (unless I missed something in the rules). So I have filed this effort under “things to do after the robot ships”.
the black ones with red buttons from a few years back can still be used i think. Its ergonomics don’t favor righties or lefties
that is what we used last year
i am a lefty, but i use my right hand to drive. I don’t really know why
I’m pretty sure you could make an accurate (enough) model with a pair of calipers and 3d studio max. How are you planning to turn the mesh into a part? Some sort of rapid prototyping machine?
This is a great excuse to build your own 3d scanner.
Exactly.
Through work I have access to an SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) machine. I can get 1 or 2 of something done for free by putting it in the extra space around the money jobs. If I have to build a lot of something, but not enough to make injection molding profitable, then I can rent time at a commercial service. For large numbers of small parts SLS can be affordable on a per part basis, if the parts are packed tightly.
While the calipers and 3d Studio approach might produce a usable product, it would take a lot of work to get it right. A laser scan like phrontist mentioned takes minutes and all of the holes at strange angles will be properly positioned. Why do it the hard way if you don’t have too?
Quickshot makes some pretty nice lefty gameport joysticks. I live in canada, so its a huge pain getting them up here, but you shouldnet have any trouble. You are looking for the GenX series (I think thats where I remember seeing them). linky
Ya you can just make a custom controller case by taking one apart and just put all of the buttons and other such stuff back into it mirroring the right one and should work perfectly, unless you sever a connection or something like that. That would look really nice and unique, also if you make it out of aluminum, which would probably be heavier, but also shinier. But good luck trying to find a left handed joy stick.
If you really want to, you can take a dremel to the standard joysticks and “turn” it into a left handed stick 
i still can’t believe FIRST replaces the black flight sticks they were such good joysticks. well if your a left handed person and you are the driver or copilot like myself(i hope to be) then just suck it up and figure out how to driver around it. just think of a way around this hill. what i did was move my thumb in the right finger slot and just did what i had to do.
yeah, what was FIRST thinking? These new pieces of crap completely inhibit the ability to have 2-stick drive, which everyone on my team (specifically the driver) agrees is superior. We’re using the sticks from previous years.
The old style sticks were discontinued.
The new ones have a centering problem which causes us to have a hard time keeping them in trim. During competitions we use the old joysticks from two years ago.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but i believe the company that made the flight sticks stopped making them…
-Pat
First gave us two Right handed joy sticks. We have black ones left over, but I have used them and have decided that they are not nearly as good a quality as the white ones… I guess I’ll just continue searching for left handed joysticks… Lefties will drive!!!