ps3joy - Make '--continuous-output' the default choice in Hydro

[chadrockey]

I've been using --continuous-output a lot here at WG and I've found no problems with it. It's much better overall and prevents users doing odd things like "rocking" the ps3 controllers while trying to drive PR2.

I propose that we either make --continuous-output the only option, or make it the default and add a --sparse-output option for backwards compatibility.

@jbohren Any thoughts?

[chadrockey]

@jbohren Bump.

[jbohren]

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. For hydro we could warn people who aren't using --continuous output, and then make it the default in Igloo, how does that sound?

[chadrockey]

I'm not aware that it will break any functionality on any robot. Most/all of the teleop nodes rely on unstable frequencies. They should have timeouts (not affected by this change) AND also have to handle that the controller sends very fast updates while moving an axis, for example. We aren't changing the maximum output frequency, just the average.

On the other hand, not enabling this makes people look like goobers when they have to "wiggle" the controller to get say.... the PR2 to move.

There's always topic_tools throttle if users need a lower rate.

[dawonn]

👍 for setting to continuous ASAP. :)

[jbohren]

So we should do this for Indigo, and I think the joy node should also have a continuous output mode.

[dawonn]

+1

[mirzashah]

+1

[david-huck]

+1

[MixieVR]

+1

[JWhitleyWork]

This zombie issue was just resurrected. It looks like quite a few people are in favor of this. Since many ROS versions have passed since this was first considered, what are the thoughts on notifying users for Lunar and above about this change and leaving Kinetic and below with the current functionality? I'd specifically like to hear from @chadrockey and @jbohren if they're still around and/or have opinions on this issue. Would also be good to hear from @dirk-thomas or @tfoote on their thoughts regarding affects to the community.

[moriarty]

Here's a 👍 to raising the dead on this zombie issue.

[erelson]

In testing I've done with ROS Melodic, it doesn't seem that the --continuous-output flag works.

For reference, we are launching via systemd like this: ExecStart=/bin/bash -c ". /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash && rosrun ps3joy ps3joy.py --inactivity-timeout=3600 --continuous-output"