Suggested uses of the Cypress FirstTouch I/O Module

[matthewgkerr]

Hi, our team is working through the "Getting Started with the 2012 FRC Control System" document and we are at the section on "How to Configure Your I/O Module". The instructions in this section appear to finish with the Cypress module communicating to the Driver Station over a USB cable. It is not clear to me why we would want to use this module at the Driver Station. The Joysticks provide a large number of buttons. Is there something I am missing here? Since the module has an accelerometer, gyroscope and wireless interface, it would appear that the module would be best used on the robot instead. And I assume that the I/O module should be used to interface with the range finder. Is this how other teams are using the I/O board and how would we go about interfacing the I/O board to the Driver Station (or Dashboard?) using the wireless interface? Thanks in advance.

[Mark McLeod]

The Cypress is provided as a generic way for teams to develop our own custom Driver Station controls.

Buttons, switches, dials, keypads, etc., so you can have up to four joysticks (with their buttons) and a slew of custom controls in any special configuration of your own making.

Example: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7190/6980547350_a6974926d2_z.jpg

For competition (FRC at least) the wireless hasn't been permitted by past rules, but the Cypress can be used on the robot under the custom circuit rules. Interfacing to it requires some cleverness, since USB isn't readily available on the robot.

The Driver Station interface to the Cypress is built-in on the I/O Tab. In code special functions are provided to read the Cypress inputs and send it outputs.

Rangefinders generally can be connected directly to the cRIO inputs and don't need the Cypress.

[JCharlton]

As Mark pointed out the Cypress is great for custom control boxes which can be infinitely customizable to the task at hand. He then linked to a picture of our control box from this year, which we're quite proud of Here's a picture of the complete driver's station. The driver's side used a regular Logitech joystick with the handle replaced by a sword (we're the "Northern Knights") and toggle switches wired into the joystick buttons 1-4.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/37981

From a mentor's standpoint custom boxes are great for several reasons. I have a box of various switches and dials the students won't stop playing with, so they're a fun way to show simple circuits and electrical wiring to the newest students. The construction of a driver's station also teaches basic skills and occupies a sub-team productively. This year two outstanding grade 7 students did most of the work on our "steampunk" board, including wiring a BCD to seven-segment circuit for the numitron digital display, which took four digital outs from the Cypress to show how many balls we had. Finally the "human interface design" is an important topic when you're making any machine, and this is often one of our most interesting and hotly debated topics.

I would recommend you purchase the breakout board and enclosure from AndyMark (am-0543, am-0544) which make using these in a project much easier.

Next year we might try interfacing to the pwm outputs and quadrature encoder capability of the Cypress. Lots of possibilities.