Building a gamepad. Need some help.
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Posted by on October 25, 2007, 4:57 pm
Please log in for more thread options Building a gamepad. Need some help. This might sound weird but I need some help into putting together a dirrectinal pad. I have hotwired one of those flexiable keyboards and have the wires all hooked up and they work for W-A-S-D, but I need something to connect them up to :) Its for a game controller it's only a prototype, but it pretty much works now, but not fully at the moment. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, I would try an Electronics group But My ISP has no groups with Electronic sin them :) /PS I put together A crappy controller and it works, but was wanting something more elegant and possible with some elctronics you can point me too :) Thanks. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on October 25, 2007, 11:27 pm
Please log in for more thread options Depends a lot on what input your games can use. Since you are using letters, I would think a keyboard controller chip is the place to start, then deciding if it's going to be USB or PS2 interface to the system. You might google around for keyboard controllers and make your own, or you might take some keyboard (like the one you have) and just wire back the matrix signals for those keys from the buttons... or if you've distructively dismantled the current keyboard too far to be able to tell how it was wired, buy some cheap keyboard and use that, it will be quicker and cheaper than buying all the discrete parts, though perhaps a bit more ghetto looking but given a project case to store it, all that is hidden away. If you're going to all this trouble, do you really want to use some flimsy short-lived flexible keyboard keys or would it be as well to use higher quality arcade-style switches? Granted they're taller but if you're using a project case to put the electronics into, it just has to be tall enough to recess the rear of the switches. Plus, given discrete switches you could map out the shape of your hand on the box surface so they correspond to the natural resting place of each finger, so it's more comfortable to use them during extended gaming sessions. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Andrew on October 26, 2007, 9:32 am
Please log in for more thread options On 2007-10-26, Mr gamer <> wrote:
> Building a gamepad. Need some help. > > This might sound weird but I need some help into putting together a > dirrectinal pad. I have hotwired one of those flexiable keyboards and > have the wires all hooked up and they work for W-A-S-D, but I need > something to connect them up to :) Have you considered interfacing to the gameport? Even if you don't currently have one fitted to the machine in question, it may work out easier to fit one for $10-$20 than mess around with keyboard electronics. The PC gameport is trivial to interface to for things like this - the buttons are simply switches connecting two pins of the connector together. Similarly, analog axes consist of a 100k linear pot across two pins. Game pad style digital direction control is slightly more complex, but still only a matter of switching in or out fixed resistances. Check your OS first though - ISTR MS dropped game port support in Vista. They'll still work but you'll need a third party driver for your port. -- Andrew Smallshaw andrews@sdf.lonestar.org | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by on October 26, 2007, 9:41 am
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Iam trying to cut down the devices for my prototype at the moment. I already have a mouse and keyboard USB adding a gamepad and getting it woprking at the same time as the keyboARD AND MOUSE in xp SEEMS NOT POSSIBLE. aNYWAY i THINK I have a way to make a dirrectinal controller now I have had a night to think about it. I don't know nothing about electronics, so I am winging it and makeing due with what I have. If it works I will let someone who knows what they are doing make it better :) Thanks. wrote: >On 2007-10-26, Mr gamer <> wrote:
>> Building a gamepad. Need some help.
>> >> This might sound weird but I need some help into putting together a >> dirrectinal pad. I have hotwired one of those flexiable keyboards and >> have the wires all hooked up and they work for W-A-S-D, but I need >> something to connect them up to :) >
>Have you considered interfacing to the gameport? Even if you don't >currently have one fitted to the machine in question, it may work >out easier to fit one for $10-$20 than mess around with keyboard >electronics. The PC gameport is trivial to interface to for things >like this - the buttons are simply switches connecting two pins of >the connector together. Similarly, analog axes consist of a 100k >linear pot across two pins. Game pad style digital direction control >is slightly more complex, but still only a matter of switching in >or out fixed resistances. > >Check your OS first though - ISTR MS dropped game port support in >Vista. They'll still work but you'll need a third party driver >for your port. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by penguinista on October 29, 2007, 3:38 pm
Please log in for more thread options Mr gamer wrote:
>
Take a look through the docs at http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm > Building a gamepad. Need some help. > > This might sound weird but I need some help into putting together a > dirrectinal pad. I have hotwired one of those flexiable keyboards and > have the wires all hooked up and they work for W-A-S-D, but I need > something to connect them up to :) > Lots of different ways of connecting controls to a computer. I rather like a keyboard hack or running in through the parallel port. | |||||||||||||||||||
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>
>Building a gamepad. Need some help.
>
>This might sound weird but I need some help into putting together a
>dirrectinal pad. I have hotwired one of those flexiable keyboards and
>have the wires all hooked up and they work for W-A-S-D, but I need
>something to connect them up to :)
>
>Its for a game controller it's only a prototype, but it pretty much
>works now, but not fully at the moment.
>
>Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, I would try an Electronics
>group But My ISP has no groups with Electronic sin them :)
>
>
>/PS I put together A crappy controller and it works, but was wanting
>something more elegant and possible with some elctronics you can point
>me too :)
>
>Thanks.