Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

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Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Fri May 15, 2009 1:24 pm

Hello.

I've recently picked up an iPhone for $100. Which is a pretty amazing deal.

I have been playing some games on it recently, and although the controls are intuitive,
they can be annoying at times.

This is why I'm coming up with this project. (Yes, I know there is supposed to be a commercial
controller coming out, but thats been in the works for a while. I'd rather make my own
because, mine will include a battery. I also know this project may be hard. But theres no harm in trying.)

Its called Project Thunder, because I can't think of a good name yet. :p


Basically the main idea, is to have a controller thats slim, and will fit right around the
iPhone (and maybe ipod touch.).

Ofcourse naturally, that would mean the iphone's headphone jack would be blocked by the
controller, so I would need to make a "passthrough" connector, and put it somewhere on the controller.
(So you could just plug the headphones into the controller.

Batteries are getting smaller and smaller these days, and I know the batteries for the iPhone
are pretty inexpensive, and powerful for the size. I believe I could easily fit one inside of
this controller.

The controller would feature either and Analog Stick or Dpad and some buttons.

Just some questions:

1) Does anyone have the pinout for the iphone connector?
2) How would I make the buttons on the controller, actually control the iPhone?

I will be making some sketches/mock ups soon. Stay Tuned.

Thanks.
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by XCVG » Fri May 15, 2009 1:52 pm

AFAIK there's no way to interface a controller.

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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Fri May 15, 2009 1:55 pm

You sure? I know at one point, there was a project that someone was doing to do that.
They had the controller made and everything and were planning on releasing them soon, and then they fell off the face of the earth. (They havnt updated since january 09.)

Here it is here:
http://iphonefreakz.com/tag/joystick/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and

http://www.icontrolpad.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, a user has hooked up a SNES controller to an iPhone.

http://iphonefreakz.com/2008/07/28/icon ... #more-5210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Scroll down)

So it has to be possible.
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by AfroLH » Fri May 15, 2009 5:36 pm

It is very possible.

It just wouldnt work with things that were not specifically programmed for it.
Unless you could somehow simulate screen presses with the buttons.

So it is possible, but useless.

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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by stogenbobber123 » Fri May 15, 2009 10:04 pm

theres no way it can be done unless you wanna break ur phone i bought mine for 200 and then i jailbroke it just do that....

much easier
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Fri May 15, 2009 10:23 pm

Unless I want to break my phone? I'm sorry, but if your not going to contribute to my thread, please don't post.

This is very possible to do. Does anyone have a pinout?
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by ZN13 » Fri May 15, 2009 10:42 pm

Here's a pinout.

And this might help you a little bit.

But just to throw in my 2 cents, this controller would be pretty pointless for any game not specifically programmed to accept input from your controller. I haven't looked at the links you posted, but they probably connected the controller to a jailbroknen iPod Touch/iPhone and used a modified emulator or something. Any game that used touch input would be rendered useless. For example: IDracula
Why is it that every time I post in a thread, it dies?
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by Twilight Wolf » Fri May 15, 2009 11:17 pm

From what experience I've had with the iPhone/iPod Touch, a controller would be pretty much pointless except for maybe some emulators. I'd leave it as-is, myself. If you wanted a controller feel, though, you could probably make a custom grip that you could put the iPhone in. Something like this:

Image

But with an iPhone. You'd still have to use the screen for your input, but it might at least feel a bit more like a gamepad.
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Sat May 16, 2009 9:12 am

Well, my iPhone is jailbroken.

And, I believe there are some emulators that work with a controller input or something. (And in my links, someone is playing quake with the controller. I'd totally play quake on my iPhone using a controller.)
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by palmertech » Sat May 16, 2009 11:24 am

The commercial project you are referring to is the iControlPad, yes?

Sorry, but you cannot do this. In theory, it is possible, but each program needs to be specifically made to work with the controller. The iControlPad has Zodttd as one of the main developers, and since he has done most emulator ports, and quake, he is able to add in support. The register system for the iControlPad is not available, however, and never will be.

Now, you could get the source for most of those games and add in the code for your custom controller yourself, but the fact that you have to ask how to do it points to your skillz not being anywhere near up to snuff.

Also, I thought your iphone has broken wifi? $100 is not that great of a deal considering that, it is pretty standard. :?
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Sun May 17, 2009 12:32 am

Sometimes the wifi works.

When will the icontrolpad be released?
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by Bibin » Sun May 17, 2009 9:18 pm

Guh. You can't just get a dock pinout and expect to have a working controller. Think of a useful, possible my-first-mod to do, since you need to do that (the boomerang controller does not count, only real mods count).

You can't just make a controller, expect to find pinouts, and think you can just control games. The software you've got on it right now doesn't support any sort of external pad at the moment, and certainly wouldn't support yours either way.

Your iPhone being jailbroken only raises it's value to total deadbeat idiots.
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Mon May 18, 2009 11:13 am

No need to be harsh. Maybe if the dev team of the iControlpad didn't fall off of the face of the earth, I wouldn't be asking these questions. They slated their release for "soon", when they posted in like January, and then never made any updates.

Like does ANYONE know what happened to these guys?
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by Bibin » Mon May 18, 2009 1:34 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:No need to be harsh. Maybe if the dev team of the iControlpad didn't fall off of the face of the earth, I wouldn't be asking these questions. They slated their release for "soon", when they posted in like January, and then never made any updates.

Like does ANYONE know what happened to these guys?
Ignorant assumptions are ignorant. There is no reason to assume that the games would just start to be externally controllable, with or without iControlPad. crap, awful garbage games like the Motion-based Super Monkey Ball (they ruined this game by the way) wouldn't start to work with an external pad of ANY sort.
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Re: Project Thunder (iPhone + Controller + battery idea)

Post by HotDog-Cart » Mon May 18, 2009 5:15 pm

Understood. What was wrong with the monkey ball? Was it too sensitive with the iphones tilt controlls?
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