Caanoo, Wiz, Info ? (Wiz Is $99 At Thinkgeek !)

[abefroman]

I'm new here. I've built 30 or so full size mame cabinets, so when I saw the Caanoo I immediately bought one (thinkgeek.com $149) then I did some reading and saw that the Caanoo doesn't support a lot of the stuff written for the Wiz and I was dissapointed.

Then I saw that thinkgeek.com was selling the Wiz on clearance for $99 !!! so I ordered one.

still havent gotten either of them in the mail yet.

one question - can you plug in a USB gamepad to the Caanoo ???? I have built full arcade control panels and jacked them into a PC USB joystick. easy to do really.
If I can do that with the Caanoo, and use the TV out, I could build a complete Mame Cabinet and use the Caanoo to run it !!!!!!!! that would be awesome !

Before I bought the Wiz from thinkgeek I looked for it on ebay and it was like $140 !!!! thinkgeek has hundreds of them in stock. awesome.

Oh, what's the best place to buy 32 gig SDHC cards ? are there any that do not work with these units ? I plan to get many of them.

cheers

 

[Pickle]

then I did some reading and saw that the Caanoo doesn't support a lot of the stuff written for the Wiz and I was dissapointed.

This is improved with the release of ginge for caanoo, allowing you to run gp2x sofware (not sure if wiz is supported)

Then I saw that thinkgeek.com was selling the Wiz on clearance for $99 !!! so I ordered one.

hmm must been having a hard time selling them

one question - can you plug in a USB gamepad to the Caanoo ???? I have built full arcade control panels and jacked them into a PC USB joystick. easy to do really.
If I can do that with the Caanoo, and use the TV out, I could build a complete Mame Cabinet and use the Caanoo to run it !!!!!!!! that would be awesome !

Theres a usb on the caanoo, tv out is supported via the ext port. GPH has shipped cables with the RCA connection built in the cable, not sure if this is standard.
USB is also supported via the ext connection.

Oh, what's the best place to buy 32 gig SDHC cards ? are there any that do not work with these units ? I plan to get many of them.

there are many places, there may be a page on wiki with compat. If you stick to namebrands you typically dont run into issues.

 

[skeezix]

I think a frontend would need writing/porting .. I'm betting the wiz/caanoo built in menu system doesn't honour USB controls, though _some_ of the apps would.

But all guess, I never tried a usb controller on wiz/caanoo myself.

Should port MaLa.. always loved it
http://malafe.net/index.php?page=screens

jeff

 

[abefroman]

I think a frontend would need writing/porting .. I'm betting the wiz/caanoo built in menu system doesn't honour USB controls, though _some_ of the apps would.

But all guess, I never tried a usb controller on wiz/caanoo myself.

Should port MaLa.. always loved it
http://malafe.net/index.php?page=screens

jeff

i use MALA exclusively for my cabinets. check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ttZry42xlfA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

there's a youtube video of a guy plugging in all kinds of stuff into the Caanoo's usb port. works great.

 

[qbertaddict]

I think a frontend would need writing/porting .. I'm betting the wiz/caanoo built in menu system doesn't honour USB controls, though _some_ of the apps would.

But all guess, I never tried a usb controller on wiz/caanoo myself.

Should port MaLa.. always loved it
http://malafe.net/index.php?page=screens

jeff

i use MALA exclusively for my cabinets. check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ttZry42xlfA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

there's a youtube video of a guy plugging in all kinds of stuff into the Caanoo's usb port. works great.

I use hyperspin!!!!! Its much prettier...Anyways in regards to using the caanoo in a cab configuration it would work but not with a arcade monitor unless it support av's or you got a converter or used a regular tv tube. I tested my ipac and it worked with the menu but not all the emus supported it. So what i did is make it like console that boots directly into the tv app and lets me select ntsc or pal. Then just browse to what I want to play. The bad thing is that not all emulators work with tv out. I also use my htpc for bigger consoles like dreamcast, naomi, atomiswave, saturn and others because of the higher resolution and arcade controls dont feel right on n64 psx and even some dreamcast games. Check out my channel if you want it has some video of my media center and hyperspin as well as some caanoo and dingoo stuff
http://www.youtube.com/user/qbertaddict1?feature=mhum

 

[someoneElse]

I think a frontend would need writing/porting .. I'm betting the wiz/caanoo built in menu system doesn't honour USB controls, though _some_ of the apps would.

The Caanoo menu won't respond to USB joysticks, but it does respond well to USB keyboards, so it might be of some use to people who have old keyboard controller based cab builds. However the games themselves probably won't use keyboard commands. Then you have the problem of some emulators letting you use usb joysticks in the game selector (gngeo), and others won't (MAME4ALL). So it would be fairly difficult for a 'hidden' system without said frontend system in place, but making a small 'dock' area stashed somewhere in the control panel, bezel, or marquee where the Caanoo itself can be easily accessed might help that. The three arcade emulators do have good USB support once the game is launched, though I've had trouble with one of my gamepads always registering to the left, due to one stick being a 'throttle/rudder,' but that might be fixable in configuration.

On a slightly related note, I've been using a cheapo media center remote that is actually a hybrid mouse/keyboard device. It's pretty handy to have full menu and media playback functions for playing with the TV-out.

 

[abefroman]

I think a frontend would need writing/porting .. I'm betting the wiz/caanoo built in menu system doesn't honour USB controls, though _some_ of the apps would.

The Caanoo menu won't respond to USB joysticks, but it does respond well to USB keyboards, so it might be of some use to people who have old keyboard controller based cab builds. However the games themselves probably won't use keyboard commands. Then you have the problem of some emulators letting you use usb joysticks in the game selector (gngeo), and others won't (MAME4ALL). So it would be fairly difficult for a 'hidden' system without said frontend system in place, but making a small 'dock' area stashed somewhere in the control panel, bezel, or marquee where the Caanoo itself can be easily accessed might help that. The three arcade emulators do have good USB support once the game is launched, though I've had trouble with one of my gamepads always registering to the left, due to one stick being a 'throttle/rudder,' but that might be fixable in configuration.

On a slightly related note, I've been using a cheapo media center remote that is actually a hybrid mouse/keyboard device. It's pretty handy to have full menu and media playback functions for playing with the TV-out.

Well, I envision building a small tabletop unit with real arcade controls and interface into the caanoo with either USB or a usb keyboard hacked into the contorls. There would be a slot to insert the Caanoo to run the cabinet. I'm going to use a 9" Iview TV I have that I dont use. it has AV input and it's battery operated. when I complete the design and the build I"ll post it on youtube and here as well.

whatta ya think ?

 

[someoneElse]

A mini tabletop sounds pretty sweet, hope to see your tinkerings soon. I've seen a few in that style using dingoos before, but this should prove 'interesting.'

 

[jph_iterationGAMES]

That is a great idea! The first MAME cab. I converted I used an old USB gamepad and wired to the actual contacts, and it is still working well. [ http://handeyesociety.com/torontron/ ]
I have since been useing the these types of interfaced; http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76_81

I think I would go with the cheaper dingoo,. and just hack the controls out to wire directly,. that would but the cost at the dingoo, the contoles, a tv, and some speakers,. . humm could be very reasonable.

Anyways, do post your results as a removeable caanoo cab. could also be very cool.