I Have Made A D-pad Work For The Gp2x !

[Vimacs]

no quotetrees you bitches!

 

[Radek]

OK people.

I see there is an interest in the making properly dpad for the GP2x and experimenting. Thought I'm working on my own complete solution and should have one soon I decided to provide you with some units of my converter NOW.
(and my complete solution will require drilling of the GP2x's front panel so it might not be for everyone)

But beware!

It will be just homemade PCB (for this run) and you will have to connect all wires by hand (but I will solder them to the converter board board if you wish). It fits inside the GP2x and I will include simple instruction of the meaning of the wires. You will have many options to wiretap it into GP2x's mainboard (and I will show a solderless method in instruction too).

Because it is rather prototype grade unit than production ready the price will be set accordingly (but don't worry - it is functional). And I'm planning other version what will be both easier to install and will add support for the center push.
(the production grade units)

Want to be early adopter and starting modding your GP2x now? Then PM me!
I will send you closer pictures of my actual unit so you will be able to make decission if you really want one.

Within few day I will assembly all units for anyone who will be interested.

But don't be angry if some time from now I will present much more elegant version with included d-pad (but it will cost more obviously). This actual offer is for early adopters/hardcore modders only who know what they do want to do with it.

Now some pictures - how it is really big:

But it fits inside the GP2x anyway:

So PM if you are interested and I will answer any question and provide you with more higher resolution pictures too.

 

[DijiTao]

Radek, I'm pretty sure ALOT of people will be intrested once you get everything worked out - I know I'm one of them.

 

[Ravnos]

I'm waiting for the "production grade" setup but your work is very intriguing Radek.

 

[bacteria]

I feel very disapointed with the community. People have been winging for months now about the stock joystick and lots of people have been saying that they want a D-pad. A lot of games DO NOT need diagonals (unless you insist on playing fighter games with combos). My product proves it (as does all Nintendo handheld games for that matter, and the vast majority of MAME 34Rc1 games). All that seems to have developed from this is Radek bringing forward his product launch.

Let's hope your faith in Radek's product is justified and it is easy enough to install, reliable, and cheap enough. Personally, I have a great GP2x now, it doesn't require cutting the front panel, lots of rewiring, etc. and it works perfectly on almost all games. Many games (even with a far better joystick cap) which were a pain to play before, are great to play now. I thought there would have been many people champing at the bit for my solution. :angry:

Webmasters - please close this forum post, people clearly don't want my product, so I will keep it to myself. I tried to offer something positive to the community, however I feel that my solution has been slated, and Radek has used the opportunity to hijack this thread to promote his own ends. Ok, I get the message - over and out.

 

[Hanz™]

I'm waiting for the "production grade" setup but your work is very intriguing Radek.

​

I agree.
(And btw my post wasn't a quote tree vimacs, I just agree with something someone says "the lazy way" 'kay!)

 

[TelcoLou]

bacteria Posted Today, 05:38 PM
> snip <

Webmasters - please close this forum post

Nah ... I think I'll leave it open ... don't want to cripple the forums, now do we?

 

[IntenseWage]

Bacteria, it's not that people here are knocking your effort. People do whine about the joystick and desire a d-pad, but I'm sure that most people want a fully-functional d-pad, not one without diagonals. There is no system that used a d-pad that didn't allow diagonals. It might not be a necessity to you, but it is to most people. Radek also didn't come in here to knock you off of your cloud and advertise his product. He's been putting extensive work and research into this whole d-pad issue for a good while and this post was significantly relevant to what he's doing. It makes sense that he'd come and post an update on his progress in here.

 

[TelcoLou]

More info please .... how is it made? More pics?

​

... not just myself, but others asked for more precise info which Bacteria could not produce ... and without diagonals, not many folks would be interested anyway.

 

[x68000]

the prototype may not be perfect but surely a little more support would be a good idea, especially to a fledgling member of the community. A slight over reaction maybe but come on guys, he has put a lot of effort into this.

Radek should have posted in his own thread and should rightly not have hijacked this one.

And GPH still need hung by their scrotums for what must be the worst pad ever to grace a game system.

 

[DaveC]

Webmasters - please close this forum post, people clearly don't want my product, so I will keep it to myself. I tried to offer something positive to the community, however I feel that my solution has been slated, and Radek has used the opportunity to hijack this thread to promote his own ends. Ok, I get the message - over and out. 

​

Take it easy. Don't give up trying though. You may want to keep thinking of ways to do this but add the diagonals for 8-way support, as that is what most of us want as games do use them (try playing Q*bert with your pad ). Good luck with the efforts.

 

[Radek]

I feel very disapointed with the community. People have been winging for months now about the stock joystick and lots of people have been saying that they want a D-pad. A lot of games DO NOT need diagonals (unless you insist on playing fighter games with combos). My product proves it (as does all Nintendo handheld games for that matter, and the vast majority of MAME 34Rc1 games). All that seems to have developed from this is Radek bringing forward his product launch.

Let's hope your faith in Radek's product is justified and it is easy enough to install, reliable, and cheap enough. Personally, I have a great GP2x now, it doesn't require cutting the front panel, lots of rewiring, etc. and it works perfectly on almost all games. Many games (even with a far better joystick cap) which were a pain to play before, are great to play now. I thought there would have been many people champing at the bit for my solution. :angry:

Are you angry at me? Do you realize why I made my offer of only logic converter when I wasn't planning it so soon (just after reading this topic)?

Perhaps for that reason people could try your solution and get working diagonals...

At very beginning I wasn't planning any drilling or cutting anything in the GP2x. I was hoping to find four microswitch based stick, replace the stock one with it and use my circuit to get diagonals working.

Unfortunately I didn't find suitable one and... no one made a working dpad either until now (you are actually the first). But people were asking about dpad very often so I finally decided to try to do such one. I was considering many options and decided to use already available (after suggestions from GP32ers) parts from Nokia N-Gage/QD. They need the drilling of the front panel so it isn't perfect solution indeed. But people were asking for it and it was made crystal clear what my mod will require.

In this very topic I also said that my mod because of drilling will not be for everyone.

Webmasters - please close this forum post, people clearly don't want my product, so I will keep it to myself. I tried to offer something positive to the community, however I feel that my solution has been slated, and Radek has used the opportunity to hijack this thread to promote his own ends. Ok, I get the message - over and out.

​

So you are really angry at me. Sorry then that I rushed my offer of only logic converter so more people could be interested in your d-pad.
(because frankly only ordinals directions aren't enough and if you could improve the visual side of your dpad I'm sure you'd get more positive respones too)

I have to tell that I was originally thinking about making only the circuit. Just to allow others to do actual d-pads or proper joysticks. (and get some experience in cmos design). But as I explained above I decided to do d-pad as well.
(The logic circuit was enough of challenge for me really - I had two major revision of it, several PCB design layouts and was risking to fry mainboard connecting it - I wasn't certain how it will react until I tried)

 

[Radek]

the prototype may not be perfect but surely a little more support would be a good idea, especially to a fledgling member of the community. A slight over reaction maybe but come on guys, he has put a lot of effort into this.

Radek should have posted in his own thread and should rightly not have hijacked this one.

I have to apologize that I didn't make it more clear:

I posted here showing only my actual prefinal circuit and rushed my offer of it (only the circuit!).
I done that hoping I could get some interest because of bacteria's dpad...
(as it's lacking the support for diagonal directions)

That wasn't any update as the same info and similar pictures were posted before.

Yes - I'm interested in offering only that circuit too. Actually that was my original goal to offer only the circuit.

I have to say I appreciate the bacteria's effort especially because of its non invasive aproach. I wasn't happy with drilling of my GP2x too. But to repeat it again - people were asking for N-Gage/QD pads and there isn't other possibilty to mount it without drilling the GP2x's case.

Now it got ugly...

I'm sorry of it and feel free to make me guilty if you wish. But there were some positive comments about bacteria's dpad too and valid concerns as well.

 

[vic20-ian]

Calm Down, Calm Down (scouse accent) - it's all gone a bit hyper with arms waving around in here.

The D Pad idea was put up for discussion - this is a discussion board - we don't know much about it apart from it's non invasive and the picture show which really doesn't show it in a very good light. Well done for getting it to work and for spending the effort to do so. The marketing was lacking a little maybe due to the excitement of getting it working. Try explaining what you have done. Some people will try it themselves, some will come to you for help as Fluffy Panda mentioned.

The thread was not hijacked (how can you hijack a text discussion anyway? A discussion evolves in response to the ideas presented)

Radek responded to the discussion about the dpad. Fluffy panda mentioned adding Radek's diagonal solution by offering his partial solution in support of yours - for the community and you to respond to.

Get a sense of perspective everyone, take better pictures, share ideas and things move forward.

I would be interested in either a joystick control interface or a DPAD with diagonals but would probably want to modify it myself. I certainly would not want to send my 2x away to someone offering basic soldering skills, i can melt the wrong bit of the case myself thanks

 

[bacteria]

The only reason for using Radek's system is to have diagonals and thus having 8 way control on a 4 way controller. If you make an 8 way controller, you don't need Radek's system. All the connections for all 8 directions, and the centre push, are at the back of the joystick, which is very easy to access and solder to.

2 solutions <_<

1) An 8 way D-pad (after all, many commercial gamepads are 8 way, so it can be done if you are nimble enough) - would work similarly to the controller on the old Intellivision game system.

2) Use 8 buttons plus centre button, external on the GP2x, positioned in a logical and easy layout. Each button connects to the current joystick, no messy wiring and cutting required.

I still state that 4 way is fine - I am very happy with it. Sure you can't play Q-bert (big loss), but 90% of everything else is great!

I will be looking carefully at people's comments when they get Radek's system. I hope for his sake his system is stable, reliable, sturdy, cheap, easy to install and doesn't brick the system; otherwise he will be nailed to the cross. People seem to revere his work, and have massive expectations of it. It is one thing loading software which is buggy and crashes the system (you can easily reboot it), hardware is a different kettle of fish. The risk with an invasive system, if it proves even marginally faulty, is that you end up with a very expensive mistake - new GP2x, wasted time, and of course the cost of the upgrade itself. Who knows if it conflicts with future versions of firmware too?

 

[bacteria]

I certainly would not want to send my 2x away to someone offering basic soldering skills

​

This wasn't the idea :blink: - the D-pad was going to be supplied, with an installation guide for you to do it yourself. 30 minutes to install it (max). Surely you don't expect Radek to do his mod for you? - no of course not; you will get a kit, and if you don't install it right, tough - new GP2x.

The only interest my product has had so far is how to tear it apart and see how it works so that others can make their own versions . Like I said before, I assembled the unit from basic components, it is not gleaming, shiny and commercial, it is hand made - but, importantly, works great. If it was of fine commercial moundlings, etc, it would cost a lot of money and setup - and would sell for considerably more than £11 (which I considered was fair for a homemade product, taking an hour to make individually). It will be interesting to see how much Radek charges for his system...

 

[Iorgy77]

1) What do you think about this - any comments? (see picture below).

​

I can't see anything, horrible dark picture, maybe with some more pictures and details on what exactly you have done, I could provide some comments

2) Would you buy one? - please indicate if you are in the UK or what country you live in. This will give me a feel for its commercial viability.

​

I would buy it, if it had 8-way support and I could see clearer what exactly I was buying.

 

[Quiest]

...
A lot of games DO NOT need diagonals (unless you insist on playing fighter games with combos). My product proves it (as does all Nintendo handheld games for that matter, and the vast majority of MAME 34Rc1 games).
...

​

You don`t just need diagonals for fighting games >_<
You need them for space shooters, FPS, adventures (scummvm), my games , and almost all emulators I played needed diagonals.

And ALL Nintendo handhelds have a D-Pad, right, but they DO allow diagonals.

Could you possibly just misunderstand this? What happens if you press up and left at the same time on your d-pad? Does it move something up and left at the same time?
Then your diagonals are working, and I don`t know what you are trying to tell us :blink:

 

[moz]

agree with above post maybe its a mis understanding and this has been bugging me since the orignal post.

my atari2600/c64/spectrum/amiga joystick only had 4 blisterswitch/microswitch for movement.

up,down,left,right

but they allowed diagonals ie when you pressed top left diagonal you pressed left and up.

bacteria is this how your pad works?

 

[primeris]

Like everyone else, I'm looking for a comfortable alternative to the stock cap.
Bacteria's D-pad idea looks good, but many of us do demand diagonals.
Radek's setup looks good, but I know I'll have one too many Corona's before I start, and end up with the chip board soldered to my left hand and a gaping hole on the front of my 2X.
DaveC's cap looks most promising for the less adventurous, but it's more fun to make your own.
My solution:
BAM!


UHU and an old army uniform button on the stock cap. I picked this one because it has a cup on both sides, making it easier to glue on to the top of the stock stick. And it will stay on the sweatiest thumb, plus, the sides are comfortable to press on, if I need to.

It's absolutely ghetto, and suffers a similar flaw to a previously seen silver "pimp" stick; it has a HUGE dead zone. And it spins a bit.
But these flaws are mostly seen if you stop to analyze them.
If I could play all the way through MegaMan, Samurai Showdown 4, and Vectorman without thinking about any kind of discomfort or suffering from any inaccuracy, then I met my goal.

I'm not gluing it to the base stick tho, I might still cave and send DaveC my $10.
Bacteria's idea of a less invasive D-pad than Radek's is really attractive, and I don't see why the logic chip idea can't be added to it.
But, you really need to add better pics and more info.