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Electronics USB gamepads suitable for cannibalizing?

Discussion in 'Modding' started by Adeptus, 6 Jul 2004.

  1. Adeptus

    Adeptus What's a Dremel?

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    Hi,
    I'm working on adapting an old joystick to USB.
    Does anyone know of any gamepads that have non-surfacemount chips in them?
    I don't want to put a whole gamepad PCB in there, I want to build my own. :dremel:
    (where's the 'soldering iron' smiley? :D)
     
  2. TheAnimus

    TheAnimus Banned

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    nope.

    But you could use the microchip example application note for converting a game port one too usb. The pic they used is a solder friendly DIP.
    www.microchip.com search their app notes.

    Or you could just hook it straight to the game port.
     
  3. Smilodon

    Smilodon The Antagonist

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    the animus: just courious... do you work for microchip or somethng? You seems to know EVERYTHING about the PIC's :)
     
  4. Adeptus

    Adeptus What's a Dremel?

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    I looked at that, but the fact that it's not flash rewritable put me off a bit.
    I don't want to be forced to buy a UV lamp (or another chip) if I program it wrong... which knowing my luck I would :duh:

    I did find a suitable 'off-the-shelf' chip... problem is the 'shelf' is in Germany & postage is a killer (minimum 25 euro). http://www.codemercs.com/JoyWarriorE.html

    Someone suggested Elcom brand pads... but they appear to be only sold in Japan.

    So... still after a (cheap?) pad to rip apart if anyone can suggest one :D
     
  5. ConKbot of Doom

    ConKbot of Doom Minimodder

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    I know he says used to have some stock in Microchip.

    If the gamepad is small enough, you might as well use their PCB, all you would have to do is replace the stuff for the analog sticks with the pots from the joystick and replace the contacts for the buttons with leads going to the switches on the joystick.

    You just have to find a controller that is small enough to hide the PCB in the base.
     
  6. Adeptus

    Adeptus What's a Dremel?

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    OK... this is the stick I'm converting:
    [​IMG]
    BattleStation II, old multi-format arcade stick (NES, SNES, Sega, C64/Atari/Amiga).
    Despite its appearance, there isn't a huge amount of space inside.
    I want to remove its current PCB & replace with my own (want to also include autofire, & circuit for CD32 console).
    I might fit 2 joypad PCBs along with the other stuff, but would prefer to do it all on one board if possible.
     
  7. TheAnimus

    TheAnimus Banned

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    When i had money (dot com boom, people loved paying a few hundred dollers and hour for a 15 year old assembly programmer) i bought some stock, but uni living costs have forced me to sell my portfolio (i had shares in 2 companies, i can call it that :p).

    No i do not work for microchip, i just love them will at my heart. Well not really but they do like us hobbiests, heck the student discount i got on my ICD2 was fanastic.

    As for the problem, i'll nock one up for u if all u need is the datasheet functions and garantiee it will work! (well garantee it will have the code they used in their app note!).
     
  8. Adeptus

    Adeptus What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks for the offer, but I managed to source a couple JoyWarrior chips without having to pay the huge postage :D
     

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