Pandora Pandora As A Usb Controller For Pcs?

[SirAileron]

Considering that the Pandora has quite a lovely hardware setup as far as game pads go, how much effort might it require for the Pandora to operate as a game controller when connected to a laptop/computer machine via USB?

It may be pointless, as the Pandora is well-capable for running games and emulators on its own, but the prospect of utilizing the Pandora as such is charming nonetheless.

I tried searching for this sort of topic, but entirely too many unrelated pages come up, even when the search is narrowed down. Has it crossed anyone else's mind before?

 

[Vorporeal]

Yeah, it's come up. The idea was to connect it via VNC (or something like that), and just use it as an input device for the computer. Streaming video back to the Pandora would likely be disabled, so the only thing it would do would be send it's input events to the host machine.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Don't think this should be in the dev corner, quite sure actually

That being said, it's a very interesting possibility, although it would probably not be easy to make the nubs work properly as game controllers. But im sure a more talented dev than me will make it work

 

[Vorporeal]

You might be able to push through the nubs as a joystick controller, possibly the rest of the game buttons. I'm not sure how that would work though, maybe I'll do a bit of research.

 

[pelrun]

Instead of using usb, I'd like to do it over bluetooth instead (which shares the HID layer with USB anyway.) There's already a software keyboard (xkbd-bthid) that does it, so it would be a matter of extending the bthid code to include a joystick device.

 

[Vorporeal]

If done using VNC, it would be done over WiFi, which should be better than using Bluetooth.

 

[dflemstr]

If done using VNC, it would be done over WiFi, which should be better than using Bluetooth.

Isn't that overcomplicating thigns by a fair bit? Why not just write a driver that would run in userspace on the Pandora and that would just read the current input status and send it by emulating a HID over BT? No need to set things up on the host machine, then.

 

[Kramy]

If done using VNC, it would be done over WiFi, which should be better than using Bluetooth.

Isn't that overcomplicating thigns by a fair bit? Why not just write a driver that would run in userspace on the Pandora and that would just read the current input status and send it by emulating a HID over BT? No need to set things up on the host machine, then.

Why? Some of us don't have bluetooth, and do have WiFi. (I fit into this category) Others may have neither, but do have a USB cable.

 

[bzar]

I vote for bluetooth. It uses less battery than wifi and has better auto-discovery. Bluetooth dongles can be bought for under $5 from dealextreme IIRC. My main reason, however, is that some of my computers eg. the one hooked up to my television has bluetooth but no wifi (you can't beat ethernet in streaming video). So yes, I'm a selfish douche

 

[lulzfish]

I have Bluetooth, but I have no fucking clue how it works.
I don't think Kubuntu has the right drivers installed.

 

[dflemstr]

I have Bluetooth, but I have no fucking clue how it works.
I don't think Kubuntu has the right drivers installed.

Well, Kubuntu has a lot of issues in general
I stopped using it long ago.

You can try installing the "kdebluetooth" (I think it was called) BlueZ suite and gain compatibility that way.

Anyways, BT is cheap and ideal for something like this, so I think it should be used as the primary medium.

 

[dentrado]

Why choose when we could have both?
Maybe synergy can be ported and used over wifi.
(and xkbd-bthid did look like a good solution for bluetooth)

 

[Vorporeal]

Synergy wouldn't be a great solution, as it depends on X11, and most people wouldn't want to have a full desktop environment running just to use the Pandora as a controller - they'd much rather the program be a small one that could just run in a terminal to conserve battery life.

 

[maxz]

Using the pandora as bluetooth device would be perfect for my HTPC. I could use it as a very nice and handy remote, complete with mouse (joystick) and keyboard.

 

[PhonicUK]

The proper way to do such a thing would be to write a virtual HID driver for the target machine. For Linux targets this is fairly trivial, for Windows targets this is a bit more tricky - especially on 64-bit versions which insist on signed drivers.

If you used something like VNC/Synergy, you wouldn't get to be an actual 'game controller', all you could do is move the mouse and insert keys into the keyboard queue.

As a concept it's entirely within the realm of possibility. I've considered a similar project to this before now (Using a tablet PC as a tablet input for a 2nd PC) so maybe It's something I'll look into.

 

[foxblock]

Another thing which would be really great, but also require some more complex coding work (apart from being impossible, maybe) would be using the Pandora's touchscreen as a graphic tablet.
As I've read the touchscreen supports 16 pressure levels, so this would not be as good as a Wacom, but great for a beginner.
The perfect solution would be to stream the video output of the PC onto the Pandora's screen so you can directly draw on the screen. (a man can dream, right?)
But I really don't know whether this would be possible as the Pandora does not have a Video In port and I don't know whether you can send and decode video signals via USB...

Well that's just my idea - using it as a controller with two nubs would also be pretty cool, especially with emulators which don't run on the Pandora (Gamecube, etc.).

foxblock out

 

[Vorporeal]

Windows already has a driver (for 32-bit only though, of course) for a virtual joystick device (google for PPJoy). The easiest thing for Windows would probably be to write a program that interfaces with it.

 

[PhonicUK]

Windows already has a driver (for 32-bit only though, of course) for a virtual joystick device (google for PPJoy). The easiest thing for Windows would probably be to write a program that interfaces with it.

Great, But all of my machines are 64-bit 32-bit fails...

 

[Tempel]

A long time ago, in a thread far far away, someone suggested having a USB slave mode for the Pandora. When it's enabled and plugged in, the Pandora would present itself as a USB hub with attached game pad, keyboard, mass storage devices, tablet, wifi and bluetooth adapters, whatever is doable. This would be my prefered option; I don't mind plugging in, and it's much more cross-platform, but I don't know how well it would translate to those who want it wireless. For that matter, I don't even know if this would be possible. What does everyone else think of it?

 

[SirAileron]

Personally, due to my lack of bluetooth on my tower PC, as well as having a sexy, sexy USB hub to connect things to easily (I've got my Dual Shock 3 hooked up right now for sweet, sweet emulation), the USB slave mode is something ideal for me. The touch screen may be nice, but all I'd be looking for is at least the ability to use the d-pad, buttons, and analog sticks. Maybe the keyboard, but that's not entirely necessary.

For general audiences, though, a USB slave mode would work for everybody, methinks, unless someone's computer magically does not have USB ports. I can understand the desire for wireless, but I guess since I come from the stone age, I don't mind wires and cables everywhere. :lol: