Wireless N64 controller?

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gamax92
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by gamax92 » Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:45 pm

why can you just hook up the data line to a transmitter. and then place the receiver back on the data line. TADA.

Or take a brighter ir light and place it inside the transmitter. and then place a 1" or smaller chrome bowl to reflect all the light out.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by blaze3927 » Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:50 pm

gamax92 wrote:why can you just hook up the data line to a transmitter. and then place the receiver back on the data line. TADA.

Or take a brighter ir light and place it inside the transmitter. and then place a 1" or smaller chrome bowl to reflect all the light out.
please stop posting, you really have no idea about what you are posting on, and i have yet to see a post from the you that is either useful or filled with quality content.
if anything your just throwing other genuine users off providing them with generally wrong information and wasting their time.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by Mario » Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:06 pm

I was going to try to implement a wireless controller for my first N64p. I bought two Xbee transcievers for this. They would probably work. I still haven't learned how to use microcontrollers, though. If you combined it with this, though, it would be really easy.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by gamax92 » Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:17 pm

those Xbee transcievers seem like they would work. i dont understand the one video on the link you posted. but yeah the transcievers probably would work.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by blaze3927 » Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:41 pm

blaze3927 wrote:
gamax92 wrote:those Xbee transcievers seem like they would work. i dont understand the one video on the link you posted. but yeah the transcievers probably would work.
please stop posting, you really have no idea about what you are posting on, and i have yet to see a post from the you that is either useful or filled with quality content.
if anything your just throwing other genuine users off providing them with generally wrong information and wasting their time.
PLEASE, i managed to ignore you at first but it's just plain annoying.
Mario wrote:I was going to try to implement a wireless controller for my first N64p. I bought two Xbee transcievers for this. They would probably work. I still haven't learned how to use microcontrollers, though. If you combined it with this, though, it would be really easy.
im still not entirely sure the microchip is necessary, some rf transmitters already claim to perform a transperent wireless data link, which im assuming means that it just accepts whatever data its given and relay's it accordingly , im gonna be proactive and try this blindly tonight using these:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1CH-RF-Radio-Wir ... 25wt_1139
its worth a shot
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by Mario » Thu Nov 11, 2010 8:19 pm

Wait, don't buy those! I made the same mistake. Those are only one-way. You need transceivers, not a transmitter and a receiver. It needs to be able to send data both ways on only one pin.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by evilteddy » Thu Nov 11, 2010 8:21 pm

Unfortunately I don't think those will work. As far as I can see that is a unidirectional transmitter and receiver while the N64 requires both directions. This isn't just for memory pack writes and rumble packs, if the data line is unidirectional it won't work at all. Apart from that remember when you're playing around with the data line it floats at 3.3V and you drag it to ground. With the transmitter above you would need a transistor to create an open collector output. You shouldn't need a voltage divider for the 5-6V because it will only go in the base of the transistor.

edit: beaten to it by Mario :)

another edit: Come to think of it we've forgotten the speed of the N64 data line. We need to update every 1µs at least (in fact unless it was exactly one bit every one µs we need higher than this speed). This means that we need a data transfer rate of at least 1Mb/s which can be found in bluetooth modules but these generally don't do transparent links.

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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by frontispiece » Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:39 pm

Hey, I've been giving this problem a lot of thought over the last few weeks, and I think I've got a workable solution, let me know what you all think:

Image

1A: A "fake Controller chip" - much like evilteddy's chip - which continually responds to the N64 that there is a controller plugged in, and says "no buttons pushed" as its default response
1B: A buffer chip, which talks to the remote over RF, sending rumble data and getting in button status, and executing a checksum to make sure that it is getting uncorrupted data. When it gets controller status data, it passes it to the "fake Controller chip", which will then say to the N64 "B button is pressed", etc.
2A: Talks to the N64 controller, which doesn't care how quickly/often you poll it for info, telling it to start/stop rumbling and getting the button status
2B: Controls the RF module, sending button status data and receiving rumble data (maybe mempack in the future, but I want to get it going first)

With this setup, you don't have to worry about transmission speeds, as chip 1A (the "fake Controller") will always be responding to the N64, just saying "nothing's happening", unless it gets data from the controller which it then passes on. It'd be crazy tough to use a wireless method that can communicate fast enough (and without attenuation!) to make a transparent link (the N64 runs at 4us/bit, or 250kbits/s).

So! What do you think? Worth a try? Anyone want to help put some of the code together even?

PS - Yep, hacking wavebirds or other controllers might work, but it just doesn't feel as good, in my opinion. I want to own this controller.
Last edited by frontispiece on Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by evilteddy » Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:14 am

That's pretty much what I always assumed would have to be done. You would likely combine the two chips on each side into one. As for the code, I just finished my HSC and got a simple JDM programmer working for PICs so I can work on the 1a and 2a parts soon.

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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by blaze3927 » Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:01 am

Mario wrote:Wait, don't buy those! I made the same mistake. Those are only one-way. You need transceivers, not a transmitter and a receiver. It needs to be able to send data both ways on only one pin.
i bought two of each like 6 months ago so yes the mistake has already been made xP
got them in front of me now.
so if it needs 1MB per second then the infra red ones shouldnt work? or the reciever end on the n64 covers that?

http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3626.0

found mario reincarantes thread. didnt get too far but he did get married apparently so i guess he's let off
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by frontispiece » Fri Nov 12, 2010 2:04 am

evilteddy wrote:That's pretty much what I always assumed would have to be done. You would likely combine the two chips on each side into one. As for the code, I just finished my HSC and got a simple JDM programmer working for PICs so I can work on the 1a and 2a parts soon.
Cool, glad to hear I'm not the only one thinking this'll be a good way to go about it (congrats on finishing the HSC too).

You're way ahead of me as you've already essentially created 1A, but all my experience is with AVR - not PIC - so hopefully I'll be able to sort out the differences in your code and possibly port it over (if you don't mind)? I'll be working on the RF buffer part (1B, 2B & the radios, trying these Nordic transcievers out [LINK] over the weekend), looking forward to keeping in touch and hearing how things go on your end!

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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by blaze3927 » Fri Nov 12, 2010 3:21 am

YaY Avr, something i can mildly understand xD
im guessing an atmega8 would be the 1st choice?
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by Mario » Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:12 pm

Or, we could all go the easy way and built the Gamecube-to-N64 adapter and mod a Wavebird into an N64 controller shell. :P
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by gamax92 » Fri Nov 12, 2010 5:46 pm

Oh yeah i frogot the console sends memcard and rumble and recives button data.

@frontispiece: That picture looks great. Which "transcievers" do you have. Also, how would the buffer mech work.
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Re: Wireless N64 controller?

Post by MarioReincarnate » Sun Nov 28, 2010 9:46 pm

Hey guys. So yeah I started on this a while ago and haven't revisited it. I ran into two issues: 1) transceivers took too long to switch from Tx to Rx, and 2) I needed to be going at 20MHz. So I needed to purchase a crystal and a pair of TX/RX pairs to keep the signal bidirectional. I'll try and get back into it again soon, but no promises :P

I thought I'd share these resources about the N64's protocol:

http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/ee476/Fi ... 7/lld.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/courses/ ... %20doc.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://svn.navi.cx/misc/trunk/wasabi/de ... servations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got as far as severing the controller's cord and hooking it up to my PICs and transceivers, but since I couldn't fit enough commands in the result was an out of control controller, hitting a bunch of random buttons lol

I'm sure I've got my circuit diagrams somewhere and definitely the code but I'll look for it if you guys really want it.

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