I am liking the Vexnet joystick!!!! Getting sick of that massive Grey thing lol.

Will this be legal for the Clean Sweep [middle/high school] World Championship in April? How about for college teams?

I'm excited to see the controller. Do you know when we might see the system?

I'm particularly excited about these:

(2) X-Y Analog Joysticks
(8) Top Buttons
(4) Back Buttons
(1) 3-Axis Accelerometer providing X-Y Tilt outputs, X-Y-Z acceleration, and a shake output

That is a LOT more control channels, both in quantity and variety, than the current remote.

I'd like more info on the "shake output". Is that a vibrator that the robot can trigger in the controller (as in feedback from the bot to the driver)? That would be outstanding.

The only other thing I'd love to see is a few LEDs on the controller that are under control of the robot's programming. Ideally 8 LEDs, perhaps associated with each of the 8 top buttons. That way you could know when you are at a limit on some axis, or when you make contact, or what state you are in when using a button to toggle modes.

Cheers,
- Dean

@Bob Mimlitch Shake output is another function of the accelerometer. It detects a shake (like an iPhone) on the X, Y, and Z axis. This get output as a bit just like a button.

Makes sense - otherwise it would be a shake input ;)
Thanks much for the clarification.

Cheers,
- Dean

I'll leave it to the young 'uns to figure out competitive advantages provided by the new controller and get excited about that... what I'd like to know is whether VEXNet + the Cortex controller allows my PC to run the robot.

Or... more specifically... if I can access the control inputs of the cortex controller across the internet. (Part II of the question concerns returning a live video feed over the wi-fi connection...)

I believe that is one of the abilities of the Terk controller http://www.terk.ri.cmu.edu/software/qwerkbot-teleop-interface/ and thought some Terk ideas might have ended up in the Cortex.

Jason

Thanks, Bob. I had the Cortex controller confused with the ARM9. My quest to run my robot from my cell phone continues....

Jason

[FONT="Times New Roman"]What kind of changes would I have to make if I switch to the Cortex Microcontroller? Will there be updates for RobotC and easyC?[/FONT]

I am just curious, but is there anyplace we could find out what this VEXnet joystick might look like?

@254pride I am just curious, but is there anyplace we could find out what this VEXnet joystick might look like?

Not sure if you've already seen this one, but a while back there was a forum thread with a link to http://www.vexrobotics.com/docs/VEXnet-Preview-2008-09-15.pdf

They say they will support EasyC and RobotC. Will there be "normal" C-based development option comparable to MPLAB? I understand that MPLAB is a Microchip thing for PIC's, but hope there is a comparable IDE for those of us who like C.

@apalrd They say they will support EasyC and RobotC. Will there be "normal" C-based development option comparable to MPLAB? I understand that MPLAB is a Microchip thing for PIC's, but hope there is a comparable IDE for those of us who like C.

I asked this question myself, and IIRC the answer, there will be a standard Programming Environment avaliable.

Both the Cortex and the Qwerk are based on ARM processors, which have "native" programming languages.

Here is another Thread on the Qwerk Controler, VEX Arm9 Microcontroller .

Here is another Thread on the VEXNet, VEX Wi-Fi? .