Team 423 used the TI Launchpad for the last 2 years and the old Cypress card for many years before then. For the Launchpad, all you need to do is use the enclosed software to format it to the number of inputs/outputs that you want. Then connect whatever switches, buttons, or potentiometers you want according to the included diagrams and they will show up as joystick buttons and axes in the DS. The only problem we had with this system is we accidentally killed one of our Launchpads by shorting it out, but other than that the system is easy to use and pretty versatile. We have made custom dashboards with exactly the buttons and switches we want for as long as I was on the team, and it worked well for us. It’s a little more work than just using an xbox controller or joystick, but it gives a lot more customizability. Let me know if you have any problems and I can try to help.
We used a TI Launchpad to build a custom operator panel this year. We found the Launchpad from one of our old KOPs just lying around, so we decided to go that route.
Yeah, you CAN use that, but most commonly teams now use the more modern MSP 430 based Launchpad. This is the one that was in FIRST Choice this year, as well as given out to all teams in the 2015 KoP. As far as I know, the Stellaris and Tiva ones are harder to find, and offer little to no advantage (as the MSP430 is already pretty cheap). You can find the tutorial for that here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_Operator_Interface_for_FIRST_Robotics_Competition
It’s a little tricky to get working, and the documentation isn’t the most clear at times, but it’s miles ahead of trying to create your own.
EDIT: If you don’t have enough FIRST Choice credits, remaining, you can find it for 12.99 at the TI Store, or 13.49 at Digikey. These are the exact same kits at in FIRST Choice, and will work identically.
Thank you guys !!! just realized we still had some credits left so i was able to get one from FIRST Choices… Does the ribbon cable come with it or separate order?
Is it possible to have a toggle switch to determine what autonomous sequence to run… how about selecting red/blue alliance and or position?
It is possible, at the beginning of auto, the driver stations send out the last known joystick values. Alliance color and station can be determined with the Driver Station library in WPILib.
The colored cables can be a bit tricky sometimes because they have a plastic coating to seal the bundles together, but it makes wire identification a lot easier.
In the time crunch of last year, we got ourselves one of these as a secondary controller (primary being an xbox controller). It’s a bit expensive, but it saved us from having to build a custom controller and gave us more time to work on the actual robot and programming. http://i.imgur.com/CtYDkG6.png
Those would work, but using the Launchpad from TI has quite a few advantages. First, you’re not using those less common connectors, instead using PWM connectors that are much more common in FIRST. The TI Launchpad also has the support for Digital outputs, meaning you can have lights, sounds, magic (well, as long as it works on 3.3v) coming out of your box to alert your drivers easier. The buttons will work with either, but it doesn’t look like your “Reyann Zero Delay USB Encoder” doesn’t have any analog inputs, meaning that it’ll be hard to have a good Joystick attached to it. That joystick in that kit is limit switch based, meaning that you are going none or fully in every direction. It’ll act like your HAT switch on most joysticks.
