you know, i haven’t thought of that, now i will have to annoy my mentor to get an old laptop and make a built in display, thanks for the great idea
I would suggest modifying the window to be hinged, allowing easy access to the OI underneath.
A ‘roll bar’ of sorts, extending from the font edge up, that would in the event of the unit falling upside down would prevent the joysticks from hitting the ground. It would also allow you to place the control system down, with the handle facing up.
Looks good. I prefer it to the painted and cathoded look. Try brushing and polishing the aluminum just before a regional. It won’t last long, but it does look great.
-Andy A.
One suggestion (which may be a non-event): Make sure you can switch your channel dipswitches easily. I’ve been to two off-seasons that’ve done it this way (Mission Mayhem and Cal Games), and teams who can’t access them just hold up the process.
(Same with the team numbers–you’ll have to change the MSB to get some channels.)
We have that covered. The OI is probably going to be on a hinged screen, that way all ports and switches are easily accessible.
Thanks for all the suggestions, and keep 'em coming.
I have gotten a 7 inch screen and we will get a laptop, stick the insides into the control board and have a built in dashboard viewer
that is the screen I’m going to use in the control board to make a built in dashboard viewer
Sweet Controller station! I would add some decals for your team number or paint it your teams colors. Awsome job, its very neat and looks really good. I like the screen thats going to go into it.
Does anyone else have any suggestions of what we should put on this control panel?
Unfortunately I’m putting so much stuff into this board that i cant fit anything into it
wow how are u going to use that? A laptop LCD requires a whole bunch of complex LVD control signals… Unless you put in the laptop with it and link via serial?
That’s a nice looking control panel. Very clean. We always tend to struggle in coming up with new and creative control panels each year. In fact, for the past two years, we have stuck with a very similar design that has been very useful and efficient.
I do have one question, more for my own understanding than anything else. Is this going to be for use in the 2007 season? I was always under the impression that the OI and associated control panels had to be built during the season. Although there are no explicit rules about in the manuals, it always seemed like that was the intentions. In addition, the various Q&As that relate to it all state that it can not be updated except during Fix-It windows (again, implying that it can’t be built outside of the alloted timeframe).
Just curious, I guess.
Again, great job on the OI.
-Nate
this is a lcd display form a portable dvd player, it fits in with the connection on most laptops
that thing is a tank!!
Thank you, that is what I was going for
how long does it take to build and how hard is it