Bacteria's controller commission - bluetooth > PS1

[bacteria]

Ok, whilst I haven't done the videos to finish the IntoDream project yet, will do over the next days/week or so, I promised the buyer that I would do this project before the N64 video step by step guide.

So, Anapan, here is your commission!

What he wants me to do is remove the board from the bluetooth controller, install it into a PS1 controller (ideally), trim the boards as needed and rewire and wire as needed, and keep the rubber tact feel of the PS1 controller. The battery life is poor on the bluetooth controller, so I will be making it far longer - the system uses 1 x AAA cell, i'm going to aim to fit in 2 x AA's and wire them in parallel; which will give about 5x the battery life.

I haven't used bluetooth before, so Anapan supplied me with a dongle and two controllers to play with.





Into...



Tomorrow, I intend to edit some of my IntoDream videos (to make one WIP video), and spend a fair bit of time experimenting with the bluetooth controller before ripping it apart, gutting it and starting the mod.

As is my way, i'll document this project fully so others can copy my project work if they want to.

[MrPopo]

I gotta ask. What the hell is that monstrosity in the second picture?

[opticledilusi0n]

I've seen them before when I was looking for bluetooth controllers for my mac. Thing sucks terribly.

I ended up getting the ps2 style wireless rumble pads for it.

Work hella better than that monstrous beast in the second picture. Maybe it'll work ok with ps1 controller guts, but I doubt it's work with the bluetooth chips correctly.

Good luck

if you get it to work let me know how it works, I'd really like to hack up some saturn controllers and use them bluetooth for my mac (doubtful though)

[bacteria]

To summerise some comments from the customer and also what he wants:

He says he uses the bluetooth to work on his PC; the bluetooth works fine but the controller is awful.

He wants the guts migrated into an original PS1 controller and using their buttons for the contacts.

Some details about the gadget:

http://www.slashphone.com/106/2768.html

http://www.tangshop.com/bluetooth-game-pad-bgp-100.html

He wants L1&L2 + R1&R2 both go to the shoulder buttons on the BGP, also the same for the Start & Select - both going to the Select button on the BGP.

"There's a dual-color indicator light, it's not necessary to have it visible, but it'd be cool if it was moved to where the cord used to go out."

"I read the battery life is pretty crappy, It would be really good if you could somehow make it so it had 2 batteries in parallel to double the battery life."

"I prefer black or dark blue. Buttons can be painted as well tho not necessary. Feel free to tag it like you did your other projects."


So, to summerise, the bluetooth is good on the gadget but the buttons and layout is bad, hence the need to migrate the controls to an official PS1 controller.

[weasels]

YAY! Bac has a new project! can't wait to see what you do with this one. but i have to say that thing, the blue tooth controller, is pretty crazy. never used one myself mind you. ^^

[bacteria]

I have a lot of forthcoming projects, probably enough stuff to keep me going for a couple of years or so.

I've not used bluetooth before, going to be interesting. Indeed, the controller is crap, which after all is the reason for this project - to improve it. Anyway, the buyer bought me a bluetooth dongle and sent me two controllers to work on.

Busy day tomorrow - getting a chest of drawers delivered, so need to assemble that and get a 32" LCD television and BlueRay player set up in the bedroom: edit the IntoDream videos (won't have time tomorrow to make the new videos for the finished project); and work on this controller project after checking it works on my main PC first.

[bacteria]

Can't get the controller to work, the dongle seems to work but won't accept a passkey, so have to install it with no passkey, however when I then run the gamepad program and select COM 3, the bluetooth says "connected" and I get a pop-up to say to click to connect the device, and it refuses to connect without a passkey - as there isn't one as it wouldn't take one, my PC refuses to connect.

Ideas? At the moment, I can't get the controller to talk to my PC!

[Niode]

Could be a bluetooth driver stack problem. Try a thirdparty bluetooth stack or get the latest drivers for the dongle. These things can be a right royal pain in the arse. I used to have one for transferring stuff to and from my old Nokia (back when it was cheaper to buy a bluetooth dongle than pay for Nokia's expensive and proprietry cables) and it would only work when there was a north easterly breeze on the third wednesday of the month. Seriously, would work perfectly one day, and then if it felt like having a hissy fit, it would not work at all, no matter how many times I restarted my PC.

Just out of curiosity, why doesn't he get a Dual Shock/sixaxis, they're the same controller, but with analogue sticks and bluetooth connectivity? I'm not saying that this isn't a worthwhile project, i'm just saying, surely it's more cost effective to buy a DS3, rather than commision somebody to make one?

[Anapan]

I'll see what I can do on my end as far as pairing the devices. I never had problems before, but that was many years ago with the Toshiba Bluetooth stack on my OQO. I figured the Widcomm one is the most capable, so that's the one I ordered.
I've never been able to get a sixaxis to work reliably on a PC, and the programs involved with pairing and interfacing have a big complicated overhead. With this gamepad, the interface is simple, and I can have it autoload on all my computers. The portability of the PS1 gamepad is a big plus as well - I wouldn't be able to fit a sixaxis into my laptop bag nearly as easily.

[Niode]

Fair enough