[PD-ot] gametrak for $10 (nice alternate controller)

PSPunch shima at pspunch.com
Thu Mar 20 10:17:08 CET 2008


About the standard PS2 controller,

I forgot where but there was once a website describing protocols used in 
game pads for almost all available game consoles.

Most pads are designed to send state info in the form of serial data, 
synchronized to a clock given from the host machine. It makes sense 
there was a crystal inside the PAS2 <-> USB converter.


One info I've learned from the old article was that conventional PC 
joysticks, unlike what I've just mentioned, actually had variable 
resisters in them whose values where read by the PC side (ISA card, if 
not a SoundBlaster I guess :(

In other words, any PC with a 15 pin D-Sub joystick port has potentials 
to read analog input values.. maybe pop-in a thermostat with minimal 
analog circuitry perhaps. I only have this as knowledge but has anyone 
actually used this in place of Arduino, etc?


BTW, the hack designed by Sega to enable a 6 button pad on Genesis 
(originally designed for 3 buttons) was quite impressive.



> I cc'ed the list since I think it's of general interest.
> 
> Mine is called a PlayStation 2 controller, but it has a regular USB  
> plug, so I think it's something different.  I did a bit more research  
> into it.  They have a custom handshake, some people have done some  
> work to reverse engineer it.
> 
> http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Ps3Controller
> 
> .hc
> 
> On Mar 19, 2008, at 3:16 PM, nicholas ward wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> I just cracked open a PS2 to USB adapter and unfortunately there  
>> was a crystal (6MHz i think0 and a weee chip and some other  
>> components. SO i guess there's a bit more involved. Let me know how  
>> the xbox version treats you though.
>> All the best
>> Nick
>>
>> On 19 Mar 2008, at 17:03, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>
>>> I just saw that you can get the Gametrak for $10 from geeks.com:
>>>
>>> http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IN2-RWG0459NA&cpc=SCH
>>>
>>> I don't know where all they ship, but this is very cheap.  I
>>> currently have one for PlayStation 2 which doesn't seem to work on my
>>> computer.  I am buying the Xbox version, which is supposed to work on
>>> regular computers too.
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906347?sd=xbox
>>>
>>> It looks like at worst, you just have to do a little soldering:
>>>
>>> http://muppet-modding.com/printthread.php?tid=1103
>>>
>>> .hc
>>>
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> ---
>>> ----
>>>
>>>                              kill your television
>>>
>>>
>>>
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