3 Digital input questions...

[FRC2116]

Three questions about digital inputs...

1. Can a team connect a breakout box with passive switches to the driver station digital inputs to set which bit of autonomous code the team wants to be run during the autonomous period (and LEDs to Digital outputs for tele-operated mode)? Additionally, are the Driver Station digital inputs readable during Autonomous mode (unlike previous years)?

2. Do the digital inputs on the Digital Sidecar require external pull up or pull down resistors
to guarantee a non-floating erroneous state on these inputs?

3. Does adding a break out box with switches and status LEDs to the driver station or external resistors to the digital inputs (as mentioned in questions 1 & 2) require special circuit permission from FIRST as this might qualify as "special electronics" and if so, how do we get that approval?

Thank you in advance for clarifying these points for me...

[GDC]

1. The Driver Station only blocks joysticks/digital inputs during the Autonomous/Enable mode, otherwise the values are passed to the ROBOT. If the robot code is looking for the joysticks/digital inputs during either Autotonomous/Disable or Teleoperated/Disable, then the inputs can be seen by the ROBOT.

2. The DS inputs must be actively pulled low or high to ensure proper operation. This can be done by using a single pole, double throw switch. Tie the common center (the switched part) to the signal input and tie 5V to one side of the switch and gnd to the other side. This will allow either 5V or gnd to be connected to the digital input.

The published schematics for the DSC show 10K pullups to +5V.

3. No, special permission is not required for these sorts of custom circuits.

The DS outputs must be current limited (target less than 10mA) when driving LEDs with a resistor in series to prevent shorting out the DS power supply.