I’m Having trouble finding a suitable joystick/game-pad/anything to use for our robot control. I was wondering what some of the other teams use. Our team has collectively agreed that we want to use 15-pin controllers, and not anything else. We are also a rookie team so we would like something simple. Any ideas you guys have for us would really help. Thanks in advance.
Old style two button CH flightsticks. Nothing beats 'em. Good luck finding them though. Search for some other threads on these particular ones.
you might want to try ebay i found a few, as they are no longer in production they can get a bit pricey. Here are a few!
Could not agree more. Giving us two right handed joysticks just doesn’t make sense.
we still use them and only used one white one in 2004 as a simple arm driver (you push the stick forward, the arm goes up and hooks on). I’ve always found the CH ones just feel better constructed…
We too wondered what to use (last year), and heard about the CH Joysticks, bought a few, and have been very happy with them.
They’re just really well made and work well in either hand. If you’re looking for more buttons, they also had a ‘pro’ version, but those get really pricey, and eBay doesn’t have any right now (non-USB versions, anyway).
this was our last years controls. they needed to be opened and re wired but they work great! ignore the ps1 we got rid of that.
We’re using modified XBOX360 controllers.
Make sure you use them wired. Although they may not operate on 900 mhz (I don’t know) the interference from the pit at regionals is going to be impressive.
They are the wired version. We took out the USB cable and replaced it with a custom cable for all the analog and digital I/O. Using the 360 controllers gives us 6 analog and 12 digital inputs to the Operator Interface per controller. Being able to use standard 360 controllers with a Windows PC is a big plus because we can use the same controller to run our robot simulator.
how exactly did you rewire them…? I opened a dual shock one up earlier today, and I was measuring resistance on the joysticks… I found that the center pin was ground, and the left pin went from 2.7 to 0 as the joystick moved left, and the right pin went from 2.7 to 0 as the joystick moved right… Based on that I couldnt figure out how to hook it up to the OI…
Our driver has two right hands - it’s a long and sometimes grisly story - so they worked out OK for us. 
Seriously, the KOP joysticks CAN be made better. We used a second spring in parallel with the original to get a stiffer feel, then cut away some plastic in the handle - think “holes drilled” - to cut the weight, all of which make them only half bad.
Don
Interesting factoid about the KOP joysticks: They can be purchased online at various retailers or on ebay, in new or used condition.
The prices ranged from*$.58-$2.88*.
Need I say more about their universally recognized low quality?
Additional note of use: I just got an email back from the sales head at CH products; the pots used in the new, USB version of their joysticks are the same 100k ones used in the older, gameport versions. It should be a relatively simple mod to switch the output to DB15.