Triggers (Shoulder buttons), still confused

[emcp]

its been mentioned that a 2nd pair of shoulder buttons are possible
in the fact that the pads are present however

how would one go about installing a new trigger,
would it be as simple as detaching the single one and clicking in new ones

i know most likely your gonna have to crack the pandora open and void the warranty

i now its too late but the feature would have been much appreciated
also why did they not just split the button vertically, therefore providing 4 shoulder buttons
i cant see durability being a problem

the only thing im disappointed in with the pandora is the shoulder buttons

 

[pelrun]

There was only ever one set of shoulder buttons planned. However MWeston broke out a couple of spare gpio's so someone could attempt the mod if they really wanted.

But since we don't have our Pandora's yet, there aren't any instructions, nor do we know if the mod is even possible, let alone feasible.

 

[craigix]

Oh it's possible, but you will end up with very small shoulder buttons - the lower half of the pandora is thinner than the Wiz.

 

[BackAssward]

Oh it's possible, but you will end up with very small shoulder buttons - the lower half of the pandora is thinner than the Wiz.

I don't think this is feasible, but I was wondering, what of the upper half, where the upper protrusions for the joints are? Probably not enough internal space to work with?

 

[WizardStan]

they're just switches. Find a normal-open trigger switch, mount it to the bottom of the Pandora, drill a hole in the case, feed some wires through, solder them to the contacts and back to the switch. Easy peasy.

 

[pelrun]

they're just switches. Find a normal-open trigger switch, mount it to the bottom of the Pandora, drill a hole in the case, feed some wires through, solder them to the contacts and back to the switch. Easy peasy.

Well, I didn't mean electrically impossible (although I guess I should have been clearer ) just that you may not end up with a solution that's actually usable...

 

[WizardStan]

I don't see why not. Sure, unfeasible to mount the switches inside the case, but with a hot glue gun you just mount the switches on the bottom instead. Maybe even set closer to the front. I've just tried an experiment with my DS: my pointer fingers rest on the existing triggers, and my middle fingers (supporting the underside of the DS) can easily hit trigger switches mounted in the corners near Slot-2.

 

[Dauric]

Problem with the underside switches is the potential stresses on the triggers from being in your pocket (and if they protrude too much how much they stab you in the leg). My DSLite just turned in to a brick recently because one of the shoulder-buttons too to much cumulative stress to it's underside (since each DS button wraps around three sides of the case). On the DSi they redesigned the shoulder buttons to not wrap around the bottom.

That said, Instead of over/under trigger setups, what about side-to-side with the L/R1 along the back. The L/R2 buttons don't need to be huge, just reachable.

I'm sure we'll see rafts of mod ideas hit the forums once we get the Pandoras in our hands. We'll all just have to stay tuned.

 

[emcp]

obviously to late
how ever could it not have been possible to place two touch sensitive buttons on the underside of the pandora

basically like small metal circles which would react to a chnage in temp etc, or a very light touch therefore no protruding parts and takes up little to no space, but yet allows psx games etc to be easily played

 

[Dauric]

obviously to late
how ever could it not have been possible to place two touch sensitive buttons on the underside of the pandora

basically like small metal circles which would react to a chnage in temp etc, or a very light touch therefore no protruding parts and takes up little to no space, but yet allows psx games etc to be easily played

It's an interesting idea, and electrical skin-conductivity switches are showing up in more and more places. The questions (I see) are how expensive are they to get and install, how much power do they use, and do they really work in a gaming application (ie: do gamers tend to rest their fingers on the L/R2 buttons without knowing it, which would trip a skin-conductivity surface).

 

[Aethix]

Well, the triggers are used so little they could probably just be assigned to keys.

 

[lulzfish]

edit: This post replies to a slightly OT post that appears to have been edited out. Never mind.

Yeah, I think PSX discs are all black as part of their copy protection. It has something to do with the lasers.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CopyProtection

"Sony also tried to combat piracy for the PS1 by making the discs' undersides black, causing them to be transparent only to the infrared laser used in CD drives, and more difficult to copy correctly since at the time of the console's release, consumers could not buy CD-Rs like this. Unfortunately for Sony, pretty soon blank discs with black undersides became available, and this part of their copy-protection scheme failed."

 

[Dauric]

Well, the triggers are used so little they could probably just be assigned to keys.

Depends on the game. Just in emulation the entire Tomb Raider series as one stand-out example (Pun may or may not be intended) that used every key on the controller heavily, and in configurations that took advantage of the fact that shoulder buttons and d-pads /regular buttons were pushed with different fingers.

 

[WizardStan]

Problem with the underside switches is the potential stresses on the triggers from being in your pocket (and if they protrude too much how much they stab you in the leg). My DSLite just turned in to a brick recently because one of the shoulder-buttons too to much cumulative stress to it's underside (since each DS button wraps around three sides of the case). On the DSi they redesigned the shoulder buttons to not wrap around the bottom.

In the event that these switches that you yourself are adding on become damaged due to excessive stress, just replace them
I mean, you put them in yourself the first time, where's the problem in replacing them again if they break down? The leg stabby is a good point though that would needs looking into.

 

[Dauric]

Problem with the underside switches is the potential stresses on the triggers from being in your pocket (and if they protrude too much how much they stab you in the leg). My DSLite just turned in to a brick recently because one of the shoulder-buttons too to much cumulative stress to it's underside (since each DS button wraps around three sides of the case). On the DSi they redesigned the shoulder buttons to not wrap around the bottom.

In the event that these switches that you yourself are adding on become damaged due to excessive stress, just replace them
I mean, you put them in yourself the first time, where's the problem in replacing them again if they break down? The leg stabby is a good point though that would needs looking into.

That would be fine and good if you could schedule your switches breaking down to -not- happen on say: a long road trip or when you're out of town visiting relatives that don't have a soldering iron. Murphy's law being what it is that is exactly when it'll happen though. Admittedly the Pandora has enough keys to remap somewhere else, but remapping is a pain in the butt. I'd rather have durable buttons that won't be a problem in the first place.

 

[WizardStan]

Murphy's law being what it is that is exactly when it'll happen though.

Curse your luck, remove them, and play something else until you can get around to fixing it? Or are you only going to have one game on your Pandora at a time?

 

[Dauric]

Murphy's law being what it is that is exactly when it'll happen though.

Curse your luck, remove them, and play something else until you can get around to fixing it?

I'd rather have durable buttons that won't be a problem in the first place.

 

[WizardStan]

Then solve the problem. I've given my solution, you've argued that it won't work because the triggers will break, to which I countered that it isn't really a big deal if they break because they should be quite easy to fix. You're still arguing that you want something better: back up your statement with a better solution then! If there is no better solution at the moment, concede temporary defeat and we'll get back to it later.

 

[Dauric]

I'm not saying any particular concept is 'wrong' I'm saying that there's things to look in to when we get our Pandoras. It's impossible for us to know the internal layout of the case until we get them in our hands. When we get them then it becomes possible to actually address button placements and sizes, or sourcing things like low-profile buttons or skin-conductivity patch switches.

Like I said early on:

I'm sure we'll see rafts of mod ideas hit the forums once we get the Pandoras in our hands. We'll all just have to stay tuned.

 

[WizardStan]

Being not-right and being wrong are not the same thing. My idea of external switches on the bottom of the case is not wrong, but from your side it's not right. That's fine, we work until we get something you do like, and maybe my idea will change and be improved as well. That's the point of a debate: I give my ideas, you give yours, if done right we both learn something, and thus the world (or at least our little piece of it) is improved.
There's no harm in envisioning concepts early, even without knowing the internals. We can always push things around if it turns out an idea isn't feasible. C'mon, brainstorm! You have better things to do at the moment?
I liked my idea because the triggers I've got cost 10 cents a piece and the whole thing can be assembled in about 5 minutes. Less if I use tape instead of hot glue. Also because it was a natural position for my middle fingers to push buttons from. But you're worried about poking and breakage, so how would you go about fixing that?