Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: mark shaker on April 04, 2015, 08:05:10 pm

Title: Announcing the HanaHo HotRod Bluetooth Joystick!
Post by: mark shaker on April 04, 2015, 08:05:10 pm

Sorta...

I always wanted to make my HotRod Joystick wireless, and this Bluetooth Keyboard Adapter does a great job: http://handheldsci.com/kb (http://handheldsci.com/kb)

It's not cheap at $65 delivered in the U.S. (It might be possible to get a cheaper price by expressing interest at MassDrop.com.)

It supports simultaneous Keystrokes (I do not know how many). I have not noticed any issues with lag or ghosting. It has both an old-school PS2 Keyboard Port and a USB Port. It's rechargeable (it has a replaceable Nokia battery.)

I did have to hook-it to a regular keyboard so I could type in the code to pair it with my tablet.

I'm using it with MAME4Droid (0.139) the only issues I've encountered are with MAME4Droid, not the Keyboard Adapter. I used a regular keyboard to get the key mapping process started. (To remap: Options -> Settings -> Configuration -> Input -> External Controller -> Define Keys.) Also MAME4Droid does not recognize moving the HotRod Joystick back and forth as "OK", so I had to Disable "Show info/warnings" and I had to manually edit each games .cfg file to prevent it from asking if I owned the ROMS:

Before: <system name="GAMEID"/>

After: <system name="GAMEID">
        <counters>
            <coins index="0" number="2" />
        </counters>
    </system>

(I wonder if just editing default.cfg would have worked....)

I was able to map Left-Flipper Button + Player 1 Start to Menu and Left-Flipper Button + Player 2 Start as Exit. So Admin buttons are not an issue.

   - Mark

Title: Re: Announcing the HanaHo HotRod Bluetooth Joystick!
Post by: Slippyblade on April 04, 2015, 08:21:12 pm

You could always roll your own.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1535 (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1535)

It's used in this build for a wireless SNES pad.

https://learn.adafruit.com/snes-ez-key-bluefruit-game-pad?view=all (https://learn.adafruit.com/snes-ez-key-bluefruit-game-pad?view=all)

Title: Re: Announcing the HanaHo HotRod Bluetooth Joystick!
Post by: mark shaker on April 05, 2015, 10:43:19 am

That http://www.adafruit.com/products/1535 (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1535) is a cool product!

I hope they come-out with a version that can be used to for 20+ inputs out of the box (without having to control it with an  Arduino or Raspberry-Pi .)

As the HotRod as 26 inputs, I think at the moment Handheld Scientific Bluetooth Keyboard Adapter wins on cost and effort.

   - Mark