OI switch input duplication

Technical Programming
1

Hi;

I am trying to understand this section from ifi_aliases.h (~ line 50)

“”"
Ports 1 & 3 have their inputs duplicated in ports 4 & 2 respectively. The
inputs from ports 1 & 3 may be disabled via the ‘Disable’ dip switch
located on the Operator Interface. See Users Manual for details.
“”"

I looked for further reference in the manual, but I am not sure which
document I should be looking in.

Anyone have a better reference, or can say something more
about what “have their inputs duplicated” means?

What is it used for?

2

Lee,
A check of the OI manual will make things more clear. There is only so many inputs so IFI duplicated the inputs between the input ports 1-4. If you check the OI reference you will see a listing for each port and where it is mapped. This arrangment makes the OI more flexible for the user.

3

This whitepaper has exactly what you are asking presented very clearly. Hope it helps!

4

So… “duplicated” means “wired together” ?

When the dipswitch is in the right position, there is no difference between pressing port 1 trigger and port 4 trigger. Is that right?

I thought I had all of the manuals, but I guess I never downloaded the OI reference. Trouble is, now I can’t find any of the documentation on the new FIRST website. Anyone have a direct link to the docs?

I looked at the whitepaper/spreadsheet. It says:

“”"
Disable dipswitch near the bottom of the OI, allows the
disabling of trigger and thumb buttons for ports 1 + 3,
meaning that only the “same as” switches on ports 2 + 4
control the port 1 + 3 trigger, thumb, and aux buttons
“”"

So, flipping the dipswitch will make it so that only port 4 controls the value of p1_sw_trig?

Does anyone have a “for example” of how you might use this?

Thanks for your time.

5

IFI has most of the documentation you need for the OI I believe:

The reason for being able to do this is basically user convenience; if I hook up joysticks to ports 1 & 3, but need to use more inputs for my control system than is available from just 2 & 4, I can “steal” the inputs from 1 & 3. This saves me the hassle of having to build a special connector in between the joystick and competition port on ports 1 or 3 so that I could use their inputs.

Our team has done this numerous times, it can really be quite useful (especially when you’re using 13 of your 16 digital inputs).

6

Ah… It’s all starting to make sense now!

Port 4 has access to BOTH sets of digital switches. You would need a customized controller in order to access the port 1 switches from port 4.

And the same between port 3 and port 2.

Thanks for the links and explanations!