True D-pad Modded F200 Prototype Done

[DaveC]

Well the 4 separate buttons of the F200 are much better than the old diagonal biased F100 stick. I prefer true d-pads with center pivots such as all traditional pads. So I hacked one in The lower pictures of the plastic piece was a failed attempt as it came out of the chuck in the machine and was mangled, so it ain't pretty. It is there just to get an idea of what it generally looks like. Notice the center pivot. This helps keep too many buttons from being pressed at once confusing games and causing gameplay problems. The second attempt was better (in the unit now) but the look could probably be improved more I like the look of the F200 "pad" but that could not be saved due to the separation unfortunatly. I was thinking of milling in a "+" shape into it eventually. It is more a proof of concept to see if control is actually improved, and it is, with a real pad. It was done to see if a d-pad mod is possible on a F200 with the standard membrane (no electronics mod) too. It doesn't require any soldering or electronics modification, but it does require alot of "Dremel" work

So it can be done. If a mold could be made then making alot would be practical.

 

[senquack]

Awesome, I have a dremel and things are looking gooooood.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Niiiice!

 

[gavie]

I can't see the pic

 

[mdinire]

The geocities site has exceeded its bandwidth limit

edit: woot, its workin now

 

[bacteria]

It is extremely easy to put a proper D-pad in the new GP2x, you don't have to bother about hacking a D-pad contact base (as it is already in the new model) not wiring it up (already done), all you need is to make a suitable hole in the GP2x case and make a top.

I presume the reason the top in the pic doesn't have a cross is that the circle will rotate when being used a bit, and the easy thing to do is to cut a circle as that follows the shape of the unmodded case. The alternative is to cut out a circle (as in pic) but use a proper D-pad (different sizes, NES, GBA, G&W, etc) which is about the right size, and cut out a circle around the cross hole and glue that in place.

Ie:

Whether you do this, or make a circle as the D-pad (as DaveC), you don't need to buy anything; make it out of plastic, mounting board (card), whatever. After all, you need to cut the hole in the GP2x case anyway, the rest of it is plain sailing!! This is a pretty easy and straightforward mod to perform. I am all for free modding; why pay when you can do it for free?

 

[b._.o._.b]

Don't think there is a great need for a d-pad mod. I really like the new pad.
With the new pad I am getting direct feedback from the direction I am pushing. If I place my thumb wrong I feel I am not pushing the right button(s) fully.
With a modded d-pad like this it would be guessing time again for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will be great for some players and I like your pro-active approach.

 

[bacteria]

It is extremely easy to put a proper D-pad in the new GP2x, you don't have to bother about hacking a D-pad contact base (as it is already in the new model) not wiring it up (already done), all you need is to make a suitable hole in the GP2x case and make a top.

I presume the reason the top in the pic doesn't have a cross is that the circle will rotate when being used a bit, and the easy thing to do is to cut a circle as that follows the shape of the unmodded case. The alternative is to cut out a circle (as in pic) but use a proper D-pad (different sizes, NES, GBA, G&W, etc) which is about the right size, and cut out a circle around the cross hole and glue that in place.

Ie:

Whether you do this, or make a circle as the D-pad (as DaveC), you don't need to buy anything; make it out of plastic, mounting board (card), whatever. After all, you need to cut the hole in the GP2x case anyway, the rest of it is plain sailing!! This is a pretty easy and straightforward mod to perform. I am all for free modding; why pay when you can do it for free?

 

[kevcal]

I take it 'stick click' has now gone..? (on the f200).

 

[deluded]

If you go into the test page - it lets you do all 8 directions on the pad, but you can't light up the middle one even if you press all 4 buttons.

It does correctly identify a diagonal though

 

[kichijai]

thanks

Well the 4 separate buttons of the F200 are much better than the old diagonal biased F100 stick. I prefer true d-pads with center pivots such as all traditional pads. So I hacked one in The lower pictures of the plastic piece was a failed attempt as it came out of the chuck in the machine and was mangled, so it ain't pretty. It is there just to get an idea of what it generally looks like. Notice the center pivot. This helps keep too many buttons from being pressed at once confusing games and causing gameplay problems. The second attempt was better (in the unit now) but the look could probably be improved more It is more a proof of concept to see if control is actually improved, and it is, with a real pad. It doesn't require any soldering or electronics modification, but it does require alot of "Dremel" work

So it can be done. If a mold could be made then making alot would be practical.

 

[DaveC]

I presume the reason the top in the pic doesn't have a cross is that the circle will rotate when being used a bit, and the easy thing to do is to cut a circle as that follows the shape of the unmodded case.

No the circle doesn't rotate. I just haven't made any shape on the front yet as it is mostly a test and I made it on a lathe. I plan on making a better design now that the dimensions are worked out.

 

[cowai]

Is it possible to simply just shorten the buttons and glue them to a sheet underneath?

 

[dgame]

Don't think there is a great need for a d-pad mod. I really like the new pad.
With the new pad I am getting direct feedback from the direction I am pushing. If I place my thumb wrong I feel I am not pushing the right button(s) fully.
With a modded d-pad like this it would be guessing time again for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will be great for some players and I like your pro-active approach.

The main problem I have with the F200 pad is that it is possible to press opposite directions at the same time which has weird effects in some games. Last night I let a friend play NES Tecmo Bowl and he found, as I did, that the player would sometimes turn back or run out of bounds.

Open the joytest program and press the left and right buttons together. On my F200 this registers a left, right, AND up-right diagonal press. So when I sweep my thumb from left to right for a second the character wants to go up-right which is out-of-bounds in Tecmo Bowl. The reversing thing I can't recreate reliably, but somehow when I presumably press opposite directions together the left direction gets registered.

This is why I am interested in this particular mod. Having a center pivot and a continuous surface would also make it easier to perform circle moves.

As it is the F200 dpad is good, much better than the joystick they used before. Once I make sure that I don't hit the opposites together the controls work great. After a little practice and mental adjustment I can do fireballs and dragon punches in Street Fighter no problem. Oh and the Galaga style games in MAME are now very fun to play in portrait mode!! No more enormous dead zone.

 

[Sphinxter]

@GP2XS:
Did you say MAME is working on the F200?

Edit:
Never mind, reading new posts backward.

 

[chaos engineer]

Just received my f-200, the pad is really disappointing. Why is GPH not able to provide us with a proper pad? Even the psp slim dpad is really o.k., now. This is just not what I was expecting and I do not understand the positive voices on these forums. Honestly, I am not able to play street fighter II properly. Therefore, I really hope that there will be something like a "dave c/ed dpad mod service" again.

 

[Samba Pa Ti]

Just received my f-200, the pad is really disappointing. Why is GPH not able to provide us with a proper pad? Even the psp slim dpad is really o.k., now. This is just not what I was expecting and I do not understand the positive voices on these forums. Honestly, I am not able to play street fighter II properly. Therefore, I really hope that there will be something like a "dave c/ed dpad mod service" again.

most of the videos on youtube show the dpad as being squashy instead of being sturdy like a proper pad, this is the main reason i didnt buy an f200 (because it looks like a cheap chinese pmp dpad), gph need to listen to their customers properly, i doubt a mk2 f200 will come out soon, not that id want that either...
if the battery life is lower due to the new sound amp, and the telnet/usb networking is missing (not that i could get the thing to work on my network properly) i dont see a point.

 

[dcpmark]

Well the 4 separate buttons of the F200 are much better than the old diagonal biased F100 stick. I prefer true d-pads with center pivots such as all traditional pads. So I hacked one in .... It was done to see if a d-pad mod is possible on a F200 with the standard membrane (no electronics mod) too. It doesn't require any soldering or electronics modification, but it does require alot of "Dremel" work

So it can be done. If a mold could be made then making alot would be practical.

Dave, I just acquired one of your DaveC/ED modded MKII F100s, and it's perfect as far as I am concerned. My question is whether your new mod plays better and/or differently on the F200 than the old one does on the F100?

 

[DaveC]

Is it possible to simply just shorten the buttons and glue them to a sheet underneath?

Great idea, And that was my first attempt. I really wanted to preserve the look as I thought it looked kind of cool. I basically did just that, I solvent bonded the separate buttons to a flat sheet and shortened the length. It failed. Why? Because the separate "spokes" got in the way of the tilt angle. A d-pad must rock and pivot as well as press down. I tried to remedy the problem by making the "spokes" thinner and opening the little pie shaped holes to give more clearance. It was a bit better and worked ok but was not very good. It got to the point that it was just not going to work well. I came to the conclusion that the best way was to just re-design that whole area.

Dave, I just acquired one of your DaveC/ED modded MKII F100s, and it's perfect as far as I am concerned. My question is whether your new mod plays better and/or differently on the F200 than the old one does on the F100?

I like my F100 mod a bit better as it is a little more precise with less throw distance. In the F200 I use the factory membranes and d-pad electronics, I just change the buttons for a solid disk like shown in my pic. It is still very good on the F200 now although I need to cut in a "+" shape on it so it gives a tactile feedback of where the ordinal directions are.

 

[kingbuzzo]

I LIKE!

If this works out well and the community doesn't crumble under shoddy work of GPH; we just might have something....