Closer To The Final Replacement Of Stick

[Radek]

Radek - yet more sterling work - once this is completed I think u should be elevated to 'godhood' status.

Errr...

I think the "Guru" is more than enough...
(I was surprised actually)

Probably a stoopid question, but could u not stick 8 'pads' under the dpad and attach them to the existing GP2X control points and not use your circuit ?.

I'll get me coat.

​

No because you would sacrifice the precission that way.
(and got not unsimilar problems what we have now)

More isn't alway better and when you have only 4 switches then you simply can not have more than 8 direction (ordinals plus diagonals). It is actually big plus because games are expecting just these 8 direction. Therefore it's very important to have a controller what has mechanical limitation of only 8 directions and it can be done using exactly 4 switches.

The converter circuit will not be really any big deal for you. It's easy to connect (and I will make it even easier), consumes very little power (no measurable effects on batteries), fits inside GP2x without problem and can be even smaller.
(I'm constantly looking at improving it - when I will get more chips I will experiment further).

The major problem is now assembling the actual dpad (actually I have one done in half) and make it elegant enough. Then are few small thing that should be improved as well (the connectors for wiretapping for an example).

 

[saboteur]

Perhaps i've mis-understood, but I meant stick the pads to the board not to the internals of the existing stick.

Anyhoo, would it bepossible to 'break' out the signals from your board and have 2 player type interface ??

Yeah 'godhood' may be a bit much - perhaps GP2X sainthood

Cheers

 

[Eolair]

If you can get this working it would be great. If you could start selling upgrade kits it would be awesome. I'd buy one yesterday if I could

 

[Radek]

Perhaps i've mis-understood, but I meant stick the pads to the board not to the internals of the existing stick.

The way I will do it is to use small board for d-pad itself. It must has one because of contact pads or microswitches. They must be mounted somehow and they can not be directly on the GP2x mainboard.

I will try to make everything as compact and least invasive as I can.
My idea is to use bottom part of stock stick as socket of some kind where you'd put the d-pad.

If you had in a mind these contact pads at right side of GP2x...
Well, it could be done that but you would just lost buttons, would need recoding of applications and drilling would be much worse there.

Anyhoo, would it bepossible to 'break' out the signals from your board and have 2 player type interface ??

There are 8 (plus 1 for push) signals in the stock stick. Yes - two d-pads could be connected to it but then we are back to the software compatibility. Software had to be recoded for that.

In an esence my logic converter is only for retaining software compatibility. Without it you'd have to sacrifice diagonals with d-pad unless software were adapted for it. But it is unrealistic to expect that everyone would go and fix all apps just because some people were modding theirs GP2xes.

 

[kaltar]

If you can get this working it would be great. If you could start selling upgrade kits it would be awesome. I'd buy one yesterday if I could

​

Hey Eolair, Do You Know Of Somebody That Painted His GP2x Just Like In Your Signature? just Curious!

 

[Jarska333]

What, With Chameleon Colors? I Think Those Were Photoshopped.

 

[Eolair]

If you can get this working it would be great. If you could start selling upgrade kits it would be awesome. I'd buy one yesterday if I could

​

Hey Eolair, Do You Know Of Somebody That Painted His GP2x Just Like In Your Signature? just Curious!

​

Unfortunately it's all photoshopped. I would love to have a "GP2x C64 Edition"

 

[kardasan]

Just a simple question to Radek. Is your logic converter, a 4b BIN to "1 of 8" hardware transcoder? Is it made up from something else than couple of logic circuits? I don't mean to steal your invention, I'm just curious ^^ (student's passion). My unit should arrive soon, so if I won't be ok with the stock joypad (and it seems that I won't) then I'll try to build this converter and some stick.

***EDIT***
BTW, a friend of mine is actually printing the PCB layouts on his printer and then he's ironing them on the PCB and baking the whole thing in oven...I'll ask can ask him, how he does it if it will help.

 

[FluffyPanda]

The only time I ever did anything with a pcb was at secondary school. We drew our designs onto the board with a fine ohp marker and dipped the boards into hydrochloric acid. Worked pretty nicely but wasn't as neat as the ones done on the plotter.

Making a stencil might not be a bad idea if you plan to do a few and can't get them done professionally.

(anyone else here used a plotter? Kind of a big printer that actually uses pens and a robotic arm to draw line diagrams)

 

[kardasan]

I did. A A0 size plotter made by HP, but not for plotting PCB layouts.

 

[IntenseWage]

Looks fantastic. I knew the N-Gage pad was a good idea. Have you tried a QD pad, though? It looks a bit nicer.

 

[Radek]

Just a simple question to Radek. Is your logic converter, a 4b BIN to "1 of 8" hardware transcoder? Is it made up from something else than couple of logic circuits? I don't mean to steal your invention, I'm just curious ^^ (student's passion). My unit should arrive soon, so if I won't be ok with the stock joypad (and it seems that I won't) then I'll try to build this converter and some stick.

It's made of 3 40xx series cmos chips plus 4 resistors. There are 10 logic gates (8xNAND + 2xNOR) used. It's very optimized version of 4-input 16-output demultiplexer as it's doesn't have to deal with all of 4bits combinations.

But I'm evaulating actually a different solution. Will much less pins to solder, far simpler PCB but a tiny bit more power consumption (but it should be in µW range too)

And the final version of converter will have wiretaps to the stick pins mounted directly in it so there will be only 7 wires to connect (5 to the dpad, 2 to batteries).
Socket and appropriate connector will be included. No soldering will be needed.

Feel free to compete with me anyway.
I will apreciate any more efficient designs that my own.
(and it will motivate me to work harder too )

If you are interested I can send you klogic file of the first (12 gates + inverters) version of it (I posted picture of it somewhere in the forums some time ago too).

***EDIT***
BTW, a friend of mine is actually printing the PCB layouts on his printer and then he's ironing them on the PCB and baking the whole thing in oven...I'll ask can ask him, how he does it if it will help.

​

Actually I can do PCBs in house fine too. But it's consuming to much time and I can not layer it will solder mask. When I will have a final version then I just make shipments say for 50 units (to make it's cheap per unit).

​

Looks fantastic. I knew the N-Gage pad was a good idea. Have you tried a QD pad, though? It looks a bit nicer.

​

Good question and there is an answer:

It works mechanically now and I have only to do PCB with contacts pads. There is a one issue thought with it but should not be too hard to solve. I'm withing days/week for completing the project.

For some extra info:

I'm testing this chip and I have already done PCB design for it so If it will works expect good things. And I have other options too.

 

[fishybawb]

This is looking better and better with each update! Keep up the good work Radek, and put me down for the finished product

 

[GeminiDomino]

Hardcore!

Man, I am so stoked by this, Radek! Now that you're getting closer to ultimate bad-assitude with the finish product, any estimates on the price, ballpark wise? Like are we looking at $10-$20 or $50-75?

 

[Radek]

This is looking better and better with each update! Keep up the good work Radek, and put me down for the finished product

​

I very appreciate your words. Thanks!

Hardcore!

Man, I am so stoked by this, Radek! Now that you're getting closer to ultimate bad-assitude with the finish product, any estimates on the price, ballpark wise? Like are we looking at $10-$20 or $50-75?

​

No 50-75$ for sure!

Expect the price within 10-35$ (dependently on options - just from a convert to full replacement, perhaps something extra too)

I can not set exact pricing yet because I'm still evaulating parts what I will be using and I didn't decidedd yet how many PCB prefabricate. But if more people will be interested then price will be lower as the cost per unit will go lower.

 

[Hanz™]

I will be interested.

 

[darkstar87]

I got a DaveC cap to help with emus (beautifully designed and made, many thanks DaveC) but this looks a real long term solution. Great work, wish I had an ounce of your skill! I think you'll have plenty of takers for this and deserve them too

 

[second exodous]

Where do you live again Radek? I was wondering if you lived on the same continent as me. Of course nowadays it doesn't make much difference as far as shipping .etc.

Thanx,
Stan

 

[Radek]

Where do you live again Radek? I was wondering if you lived on the same continent as me. Of course nowadays it doesn't make much difference as far as shipping .etc.

Thanx,
Stan

​

I live in Poland, Europe to answer your question.

 

[sweetlilmre]

I got a DaveC cap to help with emus (beautifully designed and made, many thanks DaveC) but this looks a real long term solution. Great work, wish I had an ounce of your skill! I think you'll have plenty of takers for this and deserve them too

​

I have:
a DaveC cap,
a USB / Serial connector
a 7500 mAh battery pack
and an addiction to Lucas Arts games,

I'll take one