Author Topic: DIY keyboard encoder (Read 65447 times)

404 · « **Reply #40 on:** May 27, 2012, 08:29:13 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 27, 2012, 05:22:03 pm

Awesome! I love NES. Anything i can do to help make them functions work?

not sure how we could go about that. The turbo speed is controlled by two potentiometers. There is a set of push-toggle switches just above the main buttons that can be used to keep the turbo feature down without physically holding down a button. As for the slow-motion, I don't remember how that worked, probably was just a turbo'd start button.

At first when i had it wired up, I used the alt key for the B button, however, that generally brings up the windows file menu in most windows emulators.

Here's a quick vid that shows the advantage along with its layout and quick feature list.

knohbody · « **Reply #41 on:** May 27, 2012, 09:17:19 pm »

Quote from: 404 on May 27, 2012, 08:29:13 pm

Quote from: degenatrons on May 27, 2012, 05:22:03 pm
Awesome! I love NES. Anything i can do to help make them functions work?
not sure how we could go about that. The turbo speed is controlled by two potentiometers. There is a set of push-toggle switches just above the main buttons that can be used to keep the turbo feature down without physically holding down a button. As for the slow-motion, I don't remember how that worked, probably was just a turbo'd start button.

Is the minimus AVR based?
If it is, you could probably use some of the code from this project, and use the original controller lines to the minimus with little fuss.
http://raphnet.net/electronique/snes_nes_usb/index_en.php
That should keep the turbo and slo-mo intact. Would work with SNES as well.

404 · « **Reply #42 on:** May 27, 2012, 11:00:31 pm »

Quote from: knohbody on May 27, 2012, 09:17:19 pm

Is the minimus AVR based?
If it is, you could probably use some of the code from this project, and use the original controller lines to the minimus with little fuss.
http://raphnet.net/electronique/snes_nes_usb/index_en.php
That should keep the turbo and slo-mo intact. Would work with SNES as well.

Yes, it is AVR based. There are two or three more projects doing nearly the same thing, including the one at http://www.mega-emu.com however, i wanted to keep the ability to continue to use this as a traditional nes stick use-able on a nes. Then again, it's been so long since i tested the controller that i don't even know if the first player toggle still works.

degenatrons · « **Reply #43 on:** May 28, 2012, 08:02:51 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 26, 2012, 10:17:16 am

...if I can reassign those awkward pins then we should be able to produce a more logical pinout.

I don't think it will be possible for me to reassign the HWB and RESET pins on the Minimus, bah!
There is a workaround though, I can mount the minimus on some perfboard/veroboard and wire the pins of the screw terminals so that we get the logical order. This would be a trivial task. Also, if I do this, I can use cheaper and more common 5mm screw terminals. These are also easier to connect to.

PL1 · « **Reply #44 on:** May 28, 2012, 08:53:17 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 28, 2012, 08:02:51 pm

I don't think it will be possible for me to reassign the HWB and RESET pins on the Minimus, bah!
There is a workaround though, I can mount the minimus on some perfboard/veroboard and wire the pins of the screw terminals so that we get the logical order. This would be a trivial task. Also, if I do this, I can use cheaper and more common 5mm screw terminals. These are also easier to connect to.

Didn't mean to open a can of worms. Maybe you can fit the universal admin functions onto 1, 2, 11, and 12. That would give you 3-10 and 13-20 as logical groupings.

USB
+----+
| |
| |
+--+ +--+
10 |o o| N/A (VCC)
9 |o o| 11
8 |o o| 12
7 |o o| N/A (Reset)
6 |o o| 13
5 |o o| 14
4 |o o| 15
3 |o o| 16
(HWB) |o o| 17
2 |o o| 18
1 |o o| 19
GND |o o| 20
+-----------+

Adding the perfboard and hand-wiring the 5mm terminals looks like it would drive up your effort and price point considerably, unless the .100 screw terminals are really that expensive.

Scott

degenatrons · « **Reply #45 on:** May 29, 2012, 11:53:34 am »

I found a simple way to add order to the pins...

Currently, each side of pins is ordered the same when reading from left to right i.e. ooooooooxoox - where x is not available for key mapping

I had an idea to create 2 rows of pins named A and B, with each row having 10 input pins and 2 other pins.

I created some stickers for the screw terminals (printed on inkjet and stuck on with glue)

I took a picture of my AVR with the stickers added. Sticker image is inset for reference.

degenatrons · « **Reply #46 on:** May 29, 2012, 12:30:15 pm »

Quote from: pinballjim on May 29, 2012, 12:11:04 pm

Well, off topic here but no soap on increased compatibility using various PS/2 mice and the Smart Joy adapter. The ones that worked also worked with an active PS/2 -> USB cable.

I was able to map mouse buttons to gamepad buttons when connecting via the smartjoy. This may be of benefit to some.

degenatrons · « **Reply #47 on:** May 29, 2012, 12:54:46 pm »

ids · « **Reply #48 on:** May 29, 2012, 02:37:44 pm »

Sorry if I missed this elsewhere - will you be posting source?

PL1 · « **Reply #49 on:** May 29, 2012, 04:09:55 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 29, 2012, 11:53:34 am

I had an idea to create 2 rows of pins named A and B, with each row having 10 input pins and 2 other pins.

I created some stickers for the screw terminals (printed on inkjet and stuck on with glue)

I took a picture of my AVR with the stickers added. Sticker image is inset for reference.

Looks sharp!

Can't wait to see how this pattern works across the various maps.
(Spreadsheet idea from earlier post.)

Scott

degenatrons · « **Reply #50 on:** May 29, 2012, 04:58:30 pm »

Quote from: PL1 on May 29, 2012, 04:09:55 pm

Looks sharp!

Can't wait to see how this pattern works across the various maps.
(Spreadsheet idea from earlier post.)

Scott

Hey Scott, I put up some info and a spreadsheet on my project site at https://sites.google.com/site/degenatrons/controller-interfaces/usb-keyboard-encoder
Follow the resources link to see the sheet.

Thanks for your input on this.

Cheers

PL1 · « **Reply #51 on:** May 29, 2012, 10:35:59 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 29, 2012, 04:58:30 pm

Thanks for your input on this.

Careful, Jon -- You might get more than you bargained for.

wussie · « **Reply #52 on:** May 30, 2012, 01:16:26 am »

Wow, I had thought about using an AVR or an arduino to do this, it's great to see someone already doing the hard work for me! Does that AVR support writing to the bootloader via USB? Looks like it's an atmel as well, something I was looking into snagging to make a SNES cartridge reader I saw on hack-a-day.

degenatrons · « **Reply #53 on:** May 30, 2012, 11:57:22 am »

Quote from: PL1 on May 29, 2012, 10:35:59 pm

Proposal for aligning Pinball map (Mode 4) with 1 Player Mame map (Mode 1):

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I switched things about a little more to make ESC align across all modes.

You can see the updated spreadsheet at https://sites.google.com/site/degenatrons/controller-interfaces/usb-keyboard-encoder/resources-for-usb-keyboard-encoder

I added a grey background to make it clear where key mappings align with another mode. I don't think we can improve much on this. 2 Player MAME is not flexible when we have 3 buttons per player. Generic is obviously difficult to align with - I aligned P with pause functions.

degenatrons · « **Reply #54 on:** May 30, 2012, 01:21:54 pm »

Quote from: wussie on May 30, 2012, 01:16:26 am

Wow, I had thought about using an AVR or an arduino to do this, it's great to see someone already doing the hard work for me! Does that AVR support writing to the bootloader via USB? Looks like it's an atmel as well, something I was looking into snagging to make a SNES cartridge reader I saw on hack-a-day.

Yep, you can write to bootloader via USB. I use Atmel's Flip utility to upload flash and for EEPROM management. Chip is ATMEL AT90USB162.

PL1 · « **Reply #55 on:** May 30, 2012, 04:34:43 pm »

Quote from: PL1 on May 29, 2012, 10:35:59 pm

----+--------------+---------------
Pin | Description | Key
----+--------------+---------------
B 4 | Test | T ***
----+--------------+---------------
*** = To everyone: Is there another function/key needed more than this one?

I've been looking closer at the differences between Visual Pinball (VP) and Future Pinball (FP.)

I originally used the default keys for FP, since it was developed as a standardized spinoff after the VP community had mostly agreed on which keys to use.

One difference is the process used to exit a table:
FP - Esc - Exit the table and return to FE or editor.
VP - Esc - Pauses play and brings up a menu that lets you Resume , Debug or Quit to FE or editor. (The default is Resume.)

Would Quit - Q be a better choice than Test - T?

Scott

degenatrons · « **Reply #56 on:** May 30, 2012, 05:08:43 pm »

Quote from: PL1 on May 30, 2012, 04:34:43 pm

Would Quit - Q be a better choice than Test - T?

Scott

Ok, so to confirm, in VP you need to press <Esc> followed by Q in order to quit. If we don't add the Q then we can't exit out easily.

I see 2 options.
We can change the T to Q and have a general pinball mode. The Q would have no use on FP.
We can have 2 pinball modes. VP has the Q mapping. This approach allows for other VP or FP specific mappings - if there are any.

PL1 · « **Reply #57 on:** May 30, 2012, 05:53:33 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on May 30, 2012, 05:08:43 pm

Quote from: PL1 on May 30, 2012, 04:34:43 pm
Would Quit - Q be a better choice than Test - T?

Scott
Ok, so to confirm, in VP you need to press <Esc> followed by Q in order to quit. If we don't add the Q then we can't exit out easily.

I see 2 options.
We can change the T to Q and have a general pinball mode. The Q would have no use on FP.
We can have 2 pinball modes. VP has the Q mapping. This approach allows for other VP or FP specific mappings - if there are any.

I originally included Test before I even knew how many inputs were available. I just don't see it being something that would get nearly as much use as a Quit, since I use Quit on every VP table, but have never used Test.

I forgot to mention that you could use the directional keys to switch between the VP pause/exit menu selections. The down side to that is for someone that prefers VP tables and wants to build a small standalone controller.

It's definitely not worth making separate maps for VP and FP.

Scott

degenatrons · « **Reply #58 on:** May 31, 2012, 09:40:30 am »

I replaced T with Q in the Pinball mappings and tidied up the spreadsheet a little.

https://sites.google.com/site/degenatrons/controller-interfaces/usb-keyboard-encoder/resources-for-usb-keyboard-encoder

PL1 · « **Reply #59 on:** June 01, 2012, 11:28:41 pm »

Received 2 AVRs from 404 today. He programmed and ops checked them before shipping them in a double-padded envelope. Thanks for going above and beyond, 404.

Haven't seen 404's thread in B/S/T yet . . . Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. . . but he still has some available for very reasonable prices -- PM him and support the people who support the forums.

I'm planning to use one for coin + start on a SW yoke standalone controller.

The other one is for a standalone pinball controller like the attached pic, but probably without the pause and tab buttons, and either a d-pad or a momentary-on/off/momentary-on rocker switch for up+down instead of a joystick. This setup will navigate a FE and play any table in VP/FP that uses the standard keys.

Scott

degenatrons · « **Reply #60 on:** June 02, 2012, 11:45:18 am »

Hey PL1, It's great to see that you are putting this device to good use and your controller layout looks pretty cool.

I have a stock of the AVR's and screw terminals, so just drop me a message if you want an encoder making up. I'm in UK.
£6.50 + P&P without screw terminals
£9.00 + P&P with screw terminals and stickers
I will load and test the firmware. If you want a slightly different keyboard mapping then I am happy to adjust that too.

I am am working on adding a mode for USB HID joystick and PS3 controller. After that I will take a look at the other consoles.

degenatrons · « **Reply #61 on:** June 02, 2012, 11:48:49 am »

It's great to see people on here putting this device to good use

I have a stock of the AVR's and screw terminals, so just drop me a message if you want an encoder making up. I'm in UK.
£6.50 + P&P without screw terminals
£9.00 + P&P with screw terminals and stickers
I will load and test the firmware. If you want a slightly different keyboard mapping then I am happy to adjust that too.

Next up, I am am working on adding a mode for USB HID joystick and PS3 controller. After that I will take a look at the other consoles.

degenatrons · « **Reply #62 on:** June 02, 2012, 02:33:16 pm »

I listed some on ebay to see if there is a market for these things.

PL1 · « **Reply #63 on:** June 02, 2012, 03:02:57 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on June 02, 2012, 02:33:16 pm

I listed some on ebay to see if there is a market for these things.

Here's that eBay link for those interested.

Like your seller name, Jon. Hope you provide better service for your eBay customers than John Cleese got in that sketch.

Scott

PL1 · « **Reply #64 on:** June 04, 2012, 04:21:18 am »

PM sent.

degenatrons · « **Reply #65 on:** June 05, 2012, 10:47:14 am »

Hey, thanks Scott. I've been away so sorry for not getting back sooner. I replied to PM.

Thanks for adding the listing, I forgot to include that. I will try to provide a better service than John Cleese

degenatrons · « **Reply #66 on:** June 05, 2012, 01:05:16 pm »

Quote from: pinballjim on June 05, 2012, 12:19:24 pm

So if I buy one of these from 404, I can use it to drive a trackball on my Xbox? Would I yank ground and 5VDC off the PCB to power the encoder LEDs?

Nope, these are not xbox compatible. I have a different solution for that which is not AVR based (not yet anyway). I should have a video or information out soon showing how that one works.

degenatrons · « **Reply #67 on:** June 08, 2012, 07:48:32 pm »

I created another post for my xbox controller interface at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120699.msg1280767#msg1280767

This supports 20 inputs for xbox plus mouse and trackball support (USB and PS/2) plus some other neat features. It is a hack to an existing xbox keyboard adapter. It is very cheap to make.

I will put out a video soon to demo this working and it will be going inside my xbox arcade cab.

ids · « **Reply #68 on:** June 08, 2012, 07:49:57 pm »

source code?

degenatrons · « **Reply #69 on:** June 08, 2012, 08:01:34 pm »

Hey ids,

I should have updated source available soon. I first need to take a look at open sourcing it properly and am speaking to some peeps about that. Will let you know. Sorry, i think i missed your earlier post.

ids · « **Reply #70 on:** June 08, 2012, 08:15:09 pm »

hey, np, open or no is your decision

The LUFA lib is always a start, but for custom projects it is always nice to start with known working code and tweak. I have tried your binaries and it worked as advertised. Many thanks for that! Anything beyond that is just icing sugar and far from any requirement or expectation.

Thanks

404 · « **Reply #71 on:** June 10, 2012, 03:00:39 pm »

got a strange point of sales system earlier this week that had windows 98. for grins i put the minimus onto it and win 98 recognized the device and it works great.

Degenatrons, No idea how far you are with HID mode but i did find some excellent code that has HID support along with ps3 WITH home button support. Porting this to the minimus would be awesome.
http://www.slashdev.ca/2010/05/25/ps3-gamepad-with-home-button/

degenatrons · « **Reply #72 on:** June 10, 2012, 05:47:22 pm »

Quote from: 404 on June 10, 2012, 03:00:39 pm

got a strange point of sales system earlier this week that had windows 98. for grins i put the minimus onto it and win 98 recognized the device and it works great.

Degenatrons, No idea how far you are with HID mode but i did find some excellent code that has HID support along with ps3 WITH home button support. Porting this to the minimus would be awesome.
http://www.slashdev.ca/2010/05/25/ps3-gamepad-with-home-button/

Thanks for the info 404

I got a bit distracted so no progress with the regular HID joystick mode. I never considered the PS3 home button, so this info should be a really useful reference, and will defo be checking it out.

Cheers

404 · « **Reply #73 on:** June 10, 2012, 06:41:52 pm »

Quote from: degenatrons on June 10, 2012, 05:47:22 pm

Quote from: 404 on June 10, 2012, 03:00:39 pm
got a strange point of sales system earlier this week that had windows 98. for grins i put the minimus onto it and win 98 recognized the device and it works great.

Degenatrons, No idea how far you are with HID mode but i did find some excellent code that has HID support along with ps3 WITH home button support. Porting this to the minimus would be awesome.
http://www.slashdev.ca/2010/05/25/ps3-gamepad-with-home-button/

Thanks for the info 404

I got a bit distracted so no progress with the regular HID joystick mode. I never considered the PS3 home button, so this info should be a really useful reference, and will defo be checking it out.

Cheers

ps3 mode is literally hid mode with a special bit for the home button. You can always simply implement this ps3 code here and it can serve a dual purpose.

degenatrons · « **Reply #74 on:** June 12, 2012, 06:40:46 am »

I have another DIY encoder for xbox. I created a video to show how that device is made (hacked) and demo it working with some arcade controls.

I have a seperate thread for this in the consoles section. If you're interested in that sort of thing.

404 · « **Reply #75 on:** June 12, 2012, 09:10:30 am »

Legit LOL'd when i heard The Smiths bit track.

degenatrons · « **Reply #76 on:** June 13, 2012, 05:33:27 pm »

Quote from: 404 on June 12, 2012, 09:10:30 am

Legit LOL'd when i heard The Smiths bit track.

Super "Morrissey" Brothers.

Yeh, I love the 8 bit remixes, really cool as the soundtrack for an arcade cab as familiar retro tunes. I got lots of this stuff.

degenatrons · « **Reply #77 on:** June 14, 2012, 03:48:31 pm »

I release a new firmware (version 1.3) for the keyboard encoder. You can grab the hex file from my resources page at:
https://sites.google.com/site/degenatrons/controller-interfaces/usb-keyboard-encoder/resources-for-usb-keyboard-encoder

I added an extended mapping for 2 player MAME which supports 6 buttons per player. This is mode 3 so some other modes have shuffled along.

The extended mode provides support for more buttons by making use of key combinations that are not possible via the arcade controls (e.g. up+down) and there should be no conflicts.
This mode requires some tweaks to the MAME configuration and is described further at the bottom of resources page (above link). You will also find an updated key mapping table on this page.

No support for HID joystick or PS3 yet. I made some progress on that but it is not implemented.

404 · « **Reply #78 on:** June 15, 2012, 05:31:35 pm »

awesome. I will go ahead and test this one out a little later and let you know how it goes.

degenatrons · « **Reply #79 on:** June 15, 2012, 06:29:51 pm »

Quote from: 404 on June 15, 2012, 05:31:35 pm

awesome. I will go ahead and test this one out a little later and let you know how it goes.

Thanks 404.

This is probably gonna change after some well thought out input from PL1. I may disable extended modes by default so they don't confuse those who want a basic 1 to 1 mapping setup. I was thinking about having an action to activate these extra modes by holding down HWB for 15 seconds or something. The average user would not even need to know about the extended mode stuff and would never activate it.

The extended mode provides better support for 2 player modes so I think this adds something useful.


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