Hi to everyone,
I'm going to make a Dreamcast portable soon and today when I opened an official controller, I saw that it had different technology from other consoles' controllers. How can the analog stick and shoulder buttons be replaced by regular components(say: potentiometers, etc.)? Is there a schematics or guide for this? Any help appreciated.. thx
Official controller help...
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Re: Official controller help...
The DC controllers use Hall Sensors, but you can swap them over to Potentiometers if you need to.
The Hall Sensors work by using magnets (on the Stick/Trigger) to change the current flow thru the sensor (on the board), then an Op-Amp to convert those current changes to voltage changes that the MCU on the controller can use. They pretty much end up working the exact same way as the POT style stick do, it's just a more complex way of going about it. The Saturn 3DO controllers and now Sony PS3 controllers use this same setup as well.
What it boils down to needing done is too remove the Op-Amps, and wire up the POT style sticks in place of them. The center lead (Wiper) of the Stick would be the Op-Amp output for whichever axis, then the voltage and ground for the POT are the same as what the Op-Amp used. It may not be as precise after it's done, depending on how well the POT on the Stick is, but it can be done.
I tinkered with the reverse of this awhile back, wiring up the Triggers on a DC controller to a 360 controller board, which is more work than doing what you want to do with your controller.
EDIT: You can always get yourself a 3rd party DC controller instead, they use POTs instead of the Hall Sensors.
The Hall Sensors work by using magnets (on the Stick/Trigger) to change the current flow thru the sensor (on the board), then an Op-Amp to convert those current changes to voltage changes that the MCU on the controller can use. They pretty much end up working the exact same way as the POT style stick do, it's just a more complex way of going about it. The Saturn 3DO controllers and now Sony PS3 controllers use this same setup as well.
What it boils down to needing done is too remove the Op-Amps, and wire up the POT style sticks in place of them. The center lead (Wiper) of the Stick would be the Op-Amp output for whichever axis, then the voltage and ground for the POT are the same as what the Op-Amp used. It may not be as precise after it's done, depending on how well the POT on the Stick is, but it can be done.
I tinkered with the reverse of this awhile back, wiring up the Triggers on a DC controller to a 360 controller board, which is more work than doing what you want to do with your controller.
EDIT: You can always get yourself a 3rd party DC controller instead, they use POTs instead of the Hall Sensors.
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Re-mappable Wireless 360 Controller - The CGnome
Re-mappable Wireless 360 Controller - The CGnome