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RDC Controller

Original Authors: Hedy, Kingslie, Kenyu

In tutorials, you have worked with almost all the features of the controllers that may be helpful for RDC. This document should provide you some additional information and tips for working with it during RDC, and using the controller in your final RDC D-Day.

Aka, how not to destroy your controller and have to spend credits in getting another one...

The hardware schematic, some further resources, and the design principles are published in a separate project repository here.

Table of contents

Note

Although the usage should be pretty intuitive (hopefully...), it is still highly recommended that you carefully read through this document to know about some of the features and tips not mentioned in SW Tutorials as it will be helpful for your RDC!

(!!!) Basic reminders

  • Keep your batteries charged!
  • Turn off the switch when not in use
  • Do NOT let the the PCB get in contact with metal surfaces -- something may be shorted, and if you're unlucky, something disastrous may happen...
  • Do NOT try to charge the battery using the USB-C port on the STM Bluepill (at the back side). Use the custom USB-C port at the bottom left instead

Powering, and managing the battery

The controller can be powered in two ways:

  • With a single rechargeable battery (18650), or
  • Using a Type-C to USB cable. Do NOT use Type-C to Type-C cable.

Tip

It can also be used while the battery is charging with the USB-C cable plugged in.

The controller comes with two battery slots -- intended for backup storage, weight distribution, and also ergonomics benefits. Please read the silkscreen labels and ensure you plug in the battery you want to use at the correct slot.

Controller not powering up?

When the battery is plugged and yet the controller cannot be powered on despite how many times you toggle the switch (and even with the USB to Type-C cable), please try to test it sequentially following these steps:

  1. Remove the battery
  2. Plug a USB to TypeC cable on the controller PCB. Do NOT plug Type-C cable on the Blue Pill.
  3. If the controller PCB works again with the USB to Type-C cable and without the battery → either change to a charged battery or charge the original battery on board for a longer time.
  4. If the controller PCB does not work, unfortunately and very likely your controller is dead → please consult seniors, we will decide the arrangements case-by-case.

Flashing code

Connect ST-Link wires to the four pins on the bluepill at the back. Don't try to use the USB-to-TTL module to flash code!!

Caution

The controller and the components are not designed to be powered via the ST-Link.

When you are testing the function of the controller, especially the HC05, and yet is lazy to unplug and plug the ST-Link every time you are flashing code, please only connect THREE ST-Link wires to the controller PCB —— do NOT connect the 3.3V wire and connect ONLY SWDIO, SWDCLK, and GND wires, then you could test functions of the controller smoothly while flashing code from time to time.

NOTE: In this case, remember to turn on the switch when you are flashing code into the blue pill.

Buttons

All buttons and limit switches should be set to pull up -- read a GPIO LOW when pressed, and a GPIO HIGH when released.

The 8 D-Pad buttons are labelled at the center of the D-Pads, where the number indicates the label of the GPIO Input pins in the IOC configuration.

Bluetooth / HC-05

The UART and the HC-05 headers on the controller share the same UART in STM32 configuration -- both are USART1. Connecting the HC-05 using rainbow wires to the UART port is the same as simply plugging in the HC-05 into its slot.

Debugging features

There are UART indicators under the UART header that automatically light up during UART RX/TX transmission.

Joysticks are also equipped with buttons, the LEDs right next to each joystick are hardware-level LED indicators that changed based on the joystick button state.

Backup ADCs (toggle with 0R resistors)

In the situation where the joystick ADC channels are not receiving the correct data for whatever reason (and have been confirmed it's not a software issue), ask your hardware teammate to desolder and resolder one of the 0R resistors at the back side of the board for the corresponding joystick.

There are four 0R slots for each joystick, two for X-axis ADCs and two for Y-axis -- one that enables the original ADC, another that enables the backup ADC.

Display screen

The space on the controller supports either an ST7735 1.8″ 128x160 TFT, or a LongQiu ST7789 2.0″ 240x320 TFT. The first one was taught and used in tutorials, while the second one provides you more space for more debugging information or supplementary UI for your controller.

To select the TFT screen mode:

  1. Open Core/Inc/lcd/lcd.h.

  2. Change the existing TFT_SCREEN_MODE definition to match your display. Use only one of the following options:

    ST7735 1.8″ 128x160:

    #define TFT_SCREEN_MODE TFT_SCREEN_ST7735_1_8_INCH_128X160

    LongQiu ST7789 2.0″ 240x320:

    #define TFT_SCREEN_MODE TFT_SCREEN_ST7789_2_0_INCH_240X320

  3. Save the file, and recompile.