[PD] Alternate Controllers

[Derek Holzer]

What's interesting is that the HID protocol is orders of magnitude 
faster than using USB-serial to access an Arduino. We figured that out 
last week preparing for the gamepad hacking workshop at Pickled Feet 
here in Berlin. This is because gaming is such a huge market, I figure, 
which really drives the computer hardware industry. But geeks with 
sensors, they just don't represent much of a market share at all, do 
they... ;-) And the serial port protocol is pretty old and dusty at this 
point.

Martin Howse etched up some very simple ATMega8 HID boards based on this 
design:

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/mind.htm

These worked very well with [hid] on Linux and OS X, and they worked 
with the Windows [joystick] object just fine too.

Total cost approx EUR 3! Very fast and reliable, with two 10 bit and 
five 8 bit sensor inputs plus room for 24 buttons (according to the 
original design, however these aren't used on Martin's stripped down 
board). The author of the original design says that an ATMega16 or 
greater could have many more sensor inputs (and buttons too). The inputs 
take 0-5 V DC as control information, so any kind of sensor you can rig 
up as a voltage divider will work great. Board also provides 0 V and 5 
V, from the USB bus.

A savvy person could easily do one of their own, or perhaps I'll 
convince Martin (CC'ed here) to post his board somewhere.

Enjoy!
d.

Daniel Wilcox wrote:
> Try hacking some gamepads ... its cheap and easy.  Try [hid].
> 
> My project, robotcowboy, <http://www.robotcowboy.com/> makes use of 
> hacked gamepads and a custom joy -> OSC daemon in Linux.  I'm getting ready
> to release it soon, so if you use Linux you could try that.
> 
> For instance, I cut a gamepad up and wrapped it around my old trumpet.  
> pic1 <http://www.robotcowboy.com/dump/P1070845.jpg>, pic2 
> <http://www.robotcowboy.com/dump/P1070846.jpg>, a short pd session with 
> it <http://www.robotcowboy.com/dump/1-5-2008_21-30-1_Bleet.mp3>
> 
> There's lots of cool stuff you can for cheap.  Also, old console 
> gamepads (psx, ps2, gamecube) are readily available and all you need is 
> a usb converter.  I've found aftermarket playstation controllers the 
> perfect hackables.
> 
> -- 
> Dan Wilcox
> danomatika
> www.robotcowboy.com <http://www.robotcowboy.com>
> 
> 
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-- 
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista
---Oblique Strategy # 163:
"Turn it upside down"