Hacked gamepad randomly activates buttons - ghosts?

[benarcade]

I hacked a USB Thrustmaster Firestorm gamepad to use with a simple 4-way joystick, and it seemed to work at first. But eventually, it activated "buttons" that I hadn't pressed, sending my Frogger and Pacman in directions that I didn't want.

Using the Windows joystick utility, I watched how every 20 seconds or so button 9 would flash, and 3 for just a fraction of a second - all by itself. I double checked my connections, I don't see any problems or potential shorts anywhere.

Is this common with gamepad interfaces? or is this particular to mine?

It makes me wonder though about the gamepad-based controllers - GP-Wiz, etc.

Would Joy2Key fix this problem?

And why does this happen?

Thanks

[RandyT]

It makes me wonder though about the gamepad-based controllers - GP-Wiz, etc.

No need to wonder this about the GP-Wiz.  Every interface is different, by virtue of the hardware design, as well as the code in the chip.  Consumer gaming devices are made with low cost being very high in the priorities list.  Sometimes, shortcuts are taken on these to increase the feature count to make it an attractive purchase, without increasing the cost.  Unfortunately, some of this is creeping into the home builder market through some of the re-purposed guts of these types of controllers, or poorly thought out designs.  This is, again, why it's important to do the research and use well tested hardware for a panel.

We would never release an item into the marketplace which had these types of issues.

RandyT

[keilmillerjr]

Your using a $7 handheld controller. That is probably your issue.

I use a ps3 controller with games on my iMac. It has dedicated buttons for up, down, left, and right. No need to find a way to simulate 4-way. It operates over bluetooth.

[benarcade]

I have the 4-way leaf wired to the 4-way rocker points on the gamepad, all using a common ground. No buttons (yet) just the joystick. I didn't bother to check the gamepad BEFORE I hacked it - I assumed it worked, since I bought it a few years ago and pretty sure it worked back then.

I've been reading about the different interface options and leaning toward the GP-Wiz40-Eco. I'd consider an I-PAC 2 if they didn't gouge me for shipping. I spent all my money on the original Pacman joystick and new grommet.

I looked at the XIN MO too but I'm afraid it might have issues when playing dual joystick games like Battlezone. Otherwise, the XIN seems like a good budget option.

[BobA]

Check your gamepad for shorts or bad solder joints.   If it worked before it should still work or it may have died while you were hacking it.  Random key presses of the buttons when just the joy is tied in is not the action of even a cheap controller.

[harveybirdman]

If you get too frustrated trying to troubleshoot, I've had great luck with Viggo's ZD encoder.  Price is very nice too!

[benarcade]

I've PMed Vigo - I guess he's not around.

The random keys fire off even when I'm not touching it - so no movement is necessary for it to randomly fire. Doesn't sound like a short - I'll double check it anyway. I don't remember how old it is - probably older than I think - at least 6 yrs old. I had it laying around, and I wanted to get the joystick rolling asap, so I used what I had handy. It could just be get off my lawn senile.

[RandyT]

Check your gamepad for shorts or bad solder joints.   If it worked before it should still work or it may have died while you were hacking it.  Random key presses of the buttons when just the joy is tied in is not the action of even a cheap controller.

This may be true of a cheap controller when it is in the state it was originally designed for, but not necessarily true once longer lengths of wire are attached to it.  It may be a workmanship issue, but it may also just be that the way the PCB is designed, it cannot handle stray RF or EM emissions from other equipment when wiring starts to act like antennae.  This has even been seen with encoders which are sold for quite a bit more.  Matrixed encoders are usually used on inexpensive devices, as this gets around the limited number of pins on inexpensive microcontrollers.  This arrangement is especially sensitive to external interference, as a disruption on any part of the matrix while it is scanning, can cause these phantom activations.