Just wondering,
Would it be possible to create a partner joystick that doesn’t require a partner cable? The reason i’m asking this is because many times the partner cable fails our team. Also it would be more convenient for this years new game (gateway) since the alliance stations are bigger and cover more of the field than last years game (round up.) This way you could survey the field without being restrained by the length of the partner cable.
Just my suggestion! :D:D:D
While I really like the idea here, the whole point of the partner joystick to eliminate the expensive electronics for VEXnet. I think a better implementation of this would be have the VEXnet key on the Cortex connect to both (standard) joysticks simultaneously. So you would have a system with 3 VEXnet keys. The only downside that I can see with this idea is an increase in bandwidth required, which could make interference a bigger issue.
Thats a good idea too. As long as they don’t have a cable connecting the two, I’m fine!
thats what the old crystal system did!
back to the stone ages… ^^
True, but its better for recruiting, when people think that we drive our robots with PS3 controllers instead of bricks.
the new controllers are so much better to drive with. wireless partner joysticks are a great thing, but its harder to lose them if you have a cord attached…
Thats true, when ever i hear that someone uses crystals for their robot, that team automatically loses a point for scouting. The PS3 controllers mean that their team has new equipment, making it less likely to fail.
Thats a bit harsh, especially in a competition that is trying to be available for everyone. A team’s wealth does not indicate their performance, and vice versa.
Then why doesn’t worlds allow crystals? 
Probably because crystal management between several hundred teams would be an absolute nightmare.
Because in order to run more robots wirelessly than there are crystal channels, you need to move to a different technology - VEXnet. That was the primary motivator for VEX to make this upgrade. There is nothing wrong with crystals - they were actually better in some senses.
you should fire your scouter?
jk 
but seriously, you should NEVER judge a team by its hardware
i remember talk about a robot who “looks” ok-ish but the drivers made it godly!
i can counter that statement in so many ways…
when the cortex first came out, we gave THEM “negative” points…
True, but when i used the bricks (older controllers) i had a problem with the competetion software, the robot would move for about 20 seconds then stop all together. I had to upgrade to cortex. Now my robot works fine.
Ohh baby, if I had a $1 for everytime one of our 15 teams or someone on the board complained about the Cortex/VEXnet I would have my trip to Disneyland paid for :rolleyes:
The problem with crystals is the logistics, there are only 20 “competition” crystal channels, so handing them out is a super pain.
There are a number of teams that are running the “backpack” with success. The biggest improvement in the “new equipment” is the faster processor speed and more programming memory. Unless you are doing something really complex the PIC/Crystal stuff works very well. Once you have 3 sonars, etc going in Cortex is the way to go.
I’d be willing to be that it was a programming error, not the upgrade to Cortex that fixed it.
But now that the Cortex is standard, I for one welcome our new ARM overlords.
Another annoying problem with the crystals is that when the robot sees a signal it doesn’t know which transmitter it’s coming from, so it reacts to it no matter what. With VEXnet, your robot will not move based on commands from someone else’s transmitter since they are paired (interference can still be an issue obviously, but your robot won’t move unless it was commanded by a valid signal from the paired transmitter). With crystals it was common for a team’s autonomous to start before they were enabled because some other team had a transmitter on the same channel, or just because some background interference happened to look like a valid signal for long enough to trigger the robot (once triggered by a good signal, autonomous on crystal robots runs to completion even if the signal goes away a few seconds later).
Another issue with crystals was that it required the firmware on robot to keep track of autonomous/driver mode. Hence the annoying problem where a robot that draws too much current and resets itself during the match goes back into auto mode for 20 seconds.
Why would you give them negative points???
they are “judging a robot by its hardware” (the cool new expensive cortex)
we usually just glare at their toolbox full of aluminum and wish how it was in ours
darned rich teams…
I know how you feel. Trust man.