My teams has a mogo a finished mogo lift and we are working on a cone lift for our next competition. The lift is a stretch (especially as a first year team), but it will hopefully be a RD4B with a very small four bar on the end to allow internal stacking. Right now our dedicated driver is used to the mogo and drive controls, but I feel like we need a partner controller to allow us the do the lift efficiently (3 extra controls). I, the mechanic feel like our best option is for a controller that is allowed to do the mogo and drive, and another that is allowed to do the cone lift and the drive. Questions or somments are appreciated
If both the controllers are doing drive it could get really difficult to decide who drives the robot. Instead, I think you should have one controller control the drive and mogo, and one managing the lift and cones.
Most teams don’t use the partner controller. The number of controls doesn’t seem excessive this year, and the partner controller is one more piece to break. My suggestion would be for your driver to get some time on the controls, and learn the extra functions. The amount of things you have to do is small compared to a typical video game.
I will talk to him about it, but I don’t think he will be comfortable with the extra usable buttons.
Also I think there would be a case of communication lag with one person doing the cones and the other doing the mogo and drive. I have a long fairly in depth reason against this, but I will be happy to present it if you want.
If you are skilled enough, I would definitely recommend doing it through code. Close to 100% accuracy with no human error. But if you have to do it controlled I would recommend one person do drive and the other do arm and chain bar/four bar. Communication between team members is key however; we were once in an alliance with two kids who were dual driving and yelling at each other the whole time.
Before my team had an auto-stack code, the control scheme was:
Controller 1:
Drive
Mobile goal lift
Claw
Controller 2:
Main lift
Sub lift
Mobile goal lift
Claw
Both controllers had control over the claw and mobile goal lift, with controller 1 taking priority.
I thought it would be better to have a person familiar with the lift controls and a person familiar with the mogo controls and just let them both drive. Then they can rage team throughout the game
I have never been a fan of partner controls. Even with driver practice, something always gets messed up when it comes to coordination. You can save buttons and complexity by using automation, that is toggled by one button.