Belkin N-52 as controls?

[imtaldie]

(sorry if I get the lingo wrong, kinda new to this stuff)

So I have my first project almost done.  An old video poker machine with the origional control area replaced (nice to work in an Anodize plant sometimes).  My cheap flatscreen fit in perfectly. 

Blah-blah-blah, sob-story about hotwiring a keyboard, not saving the plastic so I am flicking wires to see what does what....

So, I started thinking about my little Belkin N-52 gamepad.  Fully programmable, 16 buttons + Dpad + scroll wheel, and if you sacrifice 1 of those buttons you can change profiles and have 3 sets.  And the best part, when your using the programming software, it shows you what button your hitting (In case you didn't save the plastic, not that that would happen.  Oh,,,,, wait)

Not to mention this is my first attempt, so I am seeing a bit of debugging comming up.  It would be nice to still be able to use an actual keyboard at times.

So before I buy and bust up a new gamepad (only $40 but I'm not exactly loaded with cash) has anybody experimented with hotwiring one of these?  If it has an encoder, it would be the same general idea as hotwiring a keyoard, right?

Thanks

[Beretta]

dont know about the specific pad your talking about but there are a lot cheaper gamepads out there for like 5-10 bucks.

if you're gonna spend 40 bucks you can just as easily get a ready made encoder such as a keywiz or i-pac.

generally speaking no it's not the same while a keyboard hack involves a matrix.. IE: X + Y = Z

on game pads and purpose built encoders you have 1 wire for positive and 1 for negative, and thats it.

much easier to work with.

i've recently bought and hacked some usb pads off a ebay seller
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370227266989

i've both 4 total, each time has been fast to ship and receive and these are very hack friendly..

the D-pad is matrixed.. the rest of the buttons are not..
that seller also has duel shock style pads for 15 iirc, i've been happy dealing with them.

grovy gamer also sells similar pads but without the matrixed d-pad for 6.50 each, which are also reported as easy to hack.


if you need key strokes instead of gamepad key presses.. there is software out there for that, xpadder & joytokey for example.

below i've attached some pictures from my recent hacks with those cheap usb pads off ebay, im happy with the results although i've not completed my project yet the interface is almost ready.. i still need to get some terminal blocks for easier wiring.

[severdhed]

i have one of those, but never considered hacking it.  I dont play games with it, but it is nice to use for photoshop shortcuts.

if you are looking for something to hack, i'd go for one of the $10 gamepads you can get online.  either that shell out the money for a real encoder and be done with it

[ryantheleach]

I have one of those and its currently in pieces I'm trying to make some custom drivers for it for windows im not having much luck with it tho,

but if there's any questions you have on the internals let me know!

they're fairly easy to get into as long as you have a decent set of "small" screwdriver set, as the ones i were using were cheap and were destroying themselves trying to get it open...

the keys on them fairly well seem to be individually wired along a flexible ribbon cable.