Vibration Motor

[oclbdk]

How hard would it be to get a motor like this working in the Pandora? It'd be pretty cool to have it vibrate for alarms or in games. Oh, and it could also vibrate a little when you hit the touchscreen, like on those fancy new phones. But obviously the most important use is for the Pandora to double as a personal masseur.

 

[TaG]

From what the devs have said previously, the biggest obstacle is the lack of space inside the Pandora. Apparently the case is densely packed.

 

[PoisonedV]

Are there SDIO rumble deviceS?
anyway, servos are way overpriced at radioshack

 

[polkunus]

Are there SDIO rumble deviceS?
anyway, servos are way overpriced at radioshack

thats not the point though

 

[j.pickens]

Surely, somone can find room for this:

4mm dia. 11mm long.

 

[fischju]

Ah I have some of those, they are in the 3-in-1 and other DS rumble supporting slot 2 cards. Sure there is room, but telling it to rumble is the hard part. (They are surprising powerful)

 

[PoisonedV]

Surely, somone can find room for this:
4mm dia. 11mm long.

actually the hand is 17 feet long. that 'little' component right there is the size of a turbine in a generator.

 

[Chip]

Sure there is room, but telling it to rumble is the hard part. (They are surprising powerful)

Telling it to rumble is the easy part There are several GPIO pins available for use through solder pads and power can be borrowed from any number of points. The motor is tiny, but we won't know if there really is room for it until the first final Pandoras get torn apart.

 

[ryan0]

Actually no,getting it to rumble IS the hard part,all the software will have to be edited to make it rumble,combine that with installing it and you have a task on your hands.

 

[Lennox Rosomer]

Actually no,getting it to rumble IS the hard part,all the software will have to be edited to make it rumble,combine that with installing it and you have a task on your hands.

if you want it to respond correctly it will be a programming nightmare, no other way to say it. and that is assuming that there are usable connections on the board... (i know very little about PCB's)

it would have to be reprogrammed for each game, wouldn't it?

 

[amnesiasoft]

I would say all of it depends. There are apparently open spots for a motor on the PCB. It's entirely possible that all the gamepad parts are just wired up to a USB header on the Pandora and the Pandora treats it just like any other gamepad. If that is the case, it's also possible the open spot for a motor is also connected the same way. In which case you just would need to use the same method to make a gamepad rumble as any other gamepad.

...Or those are just some random spots that are open and CAN be used to power a motor. But will require a nightmare of coding to make work.

...Could be either one as far as I know.

 

[Chip]

I'm not sure what you guys mean by "coding nightmare". Enabling/disabling a GPIO point is not exactly rocket science. I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of "write to register XXX and it's on, clear register XXX and it's off". Even if the Pandora had a rumble motor built in, support for it would still have to be specifically written into games and emulators. It would never just magically work.

 

[j.pickens]

Yes,
The key would be a standardized I/O port to use, and get it implemented, in software examples, as early as possible.
That way, developers would know they could program for it up front, and not have to add it in later.