New Input project
Hello,
I thought I might take a moment or two to show something that i just started working on, that might end up being a pretty good VR controller in the end...well that is the goal so let's all hope so! ;)
The game controller it self is a Cabella's Xbox 360 Game Controller like this one:
The one I ordered came with no sensor bar. I didn't want it for a couple of reasons. One is I don't have an Xbox 360, and I don't think the "Wii-like" camera sensor on the gun(As it is advertised :? )would work for PC games anyway( I was correct from all my tests too :( ), but still I carried on! 8-) ) . Also if it IS like the Wii-mote, then I was betting I could either make a sensor bar that would work in it's place if the standard Wii sensor bar would not.
I think someone here mentioned getting one of these, as they show up as a standard Xbox 360 controller, which is AWESOME!! :D So who ever that was Thank You because this is what I found when I opened it up:
Sorry for the blurry picture, but to sum it all up. It IS the Wii-Mote sensor/IR camera! :D
This little board (on the back side) had nice labels and solder pads for the SCL/SDA i2c lines along with a reference power and ground(as well as some other, but I don't need those, and I don't have a datasheet for anything, so I only want to use what I know I can for now, until the 'Bus pirate' Tells me different). So we whip out a small bi-direction Logic level converter and BAM! Arduino sees it and get IR positional data perfectly. :)
So now, here is my plan for now:
:idea: First I plan to take the data from the IR Sensor and feed that data to the Arduino so that it can control two 10k Digital Potentiometer in SPI bus. They will only be active during the pushing of a big Yellow button I put right behind the X Button, and while this button is held, it interrupts the normal analog stick movement, but movement resumes when the button is released.
:idea: I also plan to add rumble motors in the stock of the gun, as well as in the center of the gun, and a small pancake vibe motor on the back-half of the trigger so smaller haptic feedback effects are possible with the combination of small and large motors placed throughout the firearm.
(This is not final placement of wires, I just needed to make sure they were all turning after the hot glue mounting)
:idea: Another idea is to use the Arduino Mirco, as well as the Adafruit CC3000 Wi-Fi Breakout Board. "It supports 802.11b/g, open/WEP/WPA/WPA2 security, TKIP & AES. A built in TCP/IP stack with a "BSD socket" interface. TCP and UDP in both client and server mode, up to 4 concurrent sockets" I want to use this to send some data later on as I need, but mostly this is how I would like to transmit force-feed back commands through Unreal 4(Guess I'll have to write a Plugin for that...oh well ;) )
:idea: I do also plan to use the Bus Pirate to read all the Serial, and i2c information that I can glean from the device, and perhaps I can get proper Xinput Force feedback working if the signals are still being sent to the controller, as this model has no motor controllers, BUT...the controller is using the Standard Wireless Xbox 360 Controller Driver, so thinning it still gets them, but ignores them. Also, button 5 is not used on this controller, so I want to try to get that added in as well. After all we cant have enough buttons right?
:idea: One of the last parts is adding in the MPU 6050, a combination 3 Axis Accelerometer, and 3 Axis Gyroscope(with an tiny on board processor too 8-) Although I don't know how to make use of it yet :( ). I have good firmware for this alone that gives a fairly stable Rotation information, including Quaternions, and with using fixed IR Led's as a reference point I 'should' be able to get it really stable, like a bad-ass Wii-mote that can be programmed in an easy to use language and is recognized by windows as a game controller that works universally with most all games, especially in VR.
:idea: Another Modification(Which I already did), was to ass a 1/4 inch hole on the top of the stock. Right where you might lay you check or tilt your head while aiming down the scope of the gun. Inside the housing of the stock I placed a https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10901, with a small round plastic piece to act as a window for the sensor. This will activate the scope as you get close enough, and turn it off after you pull away. It is very adjustable, so I will make some sensitivity settings, add in an i2c EEPROM chip to save any data, and a Adjustment Potentiometer (which isn't done yet), so that you can adjust sensitivity 'On the Fly".
:idea: One set of tests that I plan to do after this load has been sorted is to make a bunch of IR-LED ping Pong Balls. These will hang from a Net(later to be individual units I can stick on the walls) making a dome of these balls of IR light, setting apart a proper distance I believe I can do 360 degree positional tracking...well see I guess :? I am hoping it wont take 'too' many, this is theory at the moment....
:?: So if anyone has one of these Game Controllers, or a similar Cabella's one that they would like to Mod, let me know, and Ill see if I can lend a hand, and share my code and designs. I wouldn't mind some thoughts on this project as well, but try to keep it constructive, I am hoping others will learn from this project so lets not clutter with unhelpful comments ;) .
:) I have seen tons of tutorials on ripping the WIi-mote IR camera, and going through a lot of trouble it CAN be done. Now for less that $20 I can find used PC compatible Joystick with a Real IR Sensor all on a nice break-out board, and with a $3 part it talks to the Arduino with no problems that I can find. :geek:
:!: I will also try to keep you all updated as I get along so you can all see the outcome. Thank you all for you time.
~B :ugeek:
PS :arrow: I hope this all makes sense, feel free to ask any questions if anything is unclear, or if I left something out. :roll:
I thought I might take a moment or two to show something that i just started working on, that might end up being a pretty good VR controller in the end...well that is the goal so let's all hope so! ;)
The game controller it self is a Cabella's Xbox 360 Game Controller like this one:
The one I ordered came with no sensor bar. I didn't want it for a couple of reasons. One is I don't have an Xbox 360, and I don't think the "Wii-like" camera sensor on the gun(As it is advertised :? )would work for PC games anyway( I was correct from all my tests too :( ), but still I carried on! 8-) ) . Also if it IS like the Wii-mote, then I was betting I could either make a sensor bar that would work in it's place if the standard Wii sensor bar would not.
I think someone here mentioned getting one of these, as they show up as a standard Xbox 360 controller, which is AWESOME!! :D So who ever that was Thank You because this is what I found when I opened it up:
Sorry for the blurry picture, but to sum it all up. It IS the Wii-Mote sensor/IR camera! :D
This little board (on the back side) had nice labels and solder pads for the SCL/SDA i2c lines along with a reference power and ground(as well as some other, but I don't need those, and I don't have a datasheet for anything, so I only want to use what I know I can for now, until the 'Bus pirate' Tells me different). So we whip out a small bi-direction Logic level converter and BAM! Arduino sees it and get IR positional data perfectly. :)
So now, here is my plan for now:
:idea: First I plan to take the data from the IR Sensor and feed that data to the Arduino so that it can control two 10k Digital Potentiometer in SPI bus. They will only be active during the pushing of a big Yellow button I put right behind the X Button, and while this button is held, it interrupts the normal analog stick movement, but movement resumes when the button is released.
:idea: I also plan to add rumble motors in the stock of the gun, as well as in the center of the gun, and a small pancake vibe motor on the back-half of the trigger so smaller haptic feedback effects are possible with the combination of small and large motors placed throughout the firearm.
(This is not final placement of wires, I just needed to make sure they were all turning after the hot glue mounting)
:idea: Another idea is to use the Arduino Mirco, as well as the Adafruit CC3000 Wi-Fi Breakout Board. "It supports 802.11b/g, open/WEP/WPA/WPA2 security, TKIP & AES. A built in TCP/IP stack with a "BSD socket" interface. TCP and UDP in both client and server mode, up to 4 concurrent sockets" I want to use this to send some data later on as I need, but mostly this is how I would like to transmit force-feed back commands through Unreal 4(Guess I'll have to write a Plugin for that...oh well ;) )
:idea: I do also plan to use the Bus Pirate to read all the Serial, and i2c information that I can glean from the device, and perhaps I can get proper Xinput Force feedback working if the signals are still being sent to the controller, as this model has no motor controllers, BUT...the controller is using the Standard Wireless Xbox 360 Controller Driver, so thinning it still gets them, but ignores them. Also, button 5 is not used on this controller, so I want to try to get that added in as well. After all we cant have enough buttons right?
:idea: One of the last parts is adding in the MPU 6050, a combination 3 Axis Accelerometer, and 3 Axis Gyroscope(with an tiny on board processor too 8-) Although I don't know how to make use of it yet :( ). I have good firmware for this alone that gives a fairly stable Rotation information, including Quaternions, and with using fixed IR Led's as a reference point I 'should' be able to get it really stable, like a bad-ass Wii-mote that can be programmed in an easy to use language and is recognized by windows as a game controller that works universally with most all games, especially in VR.
:idea: Another Modification(Which I already did), was to ass a 1/4 inch hole on the top of the stock. Right where you might lay you check or tilt your head while aiming down the scope of the gun. Inside the housing of the stock I placed a https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10901, with a small round plastic piece to act as a window for the sensor. This will activate the scope as you get close enough, and turn it off after you pull away. It is very adjustable, so I will make some sensitivity settings, add in an i2c EEPROM chip to save any data, and a Adjustment Potentiometer (which isn't done yet), so that you can adjust sensitivity 'On the Fly".
:idea: One set of tests that I plan to do after this load has been sorted is to make a bunch of IR-LED ping Pong Balls. These will hang from a Net(later to be individual units I can stick on the walls) making a dome of these balls of IR light, setting apart a proper distance I believe I can do 360 degree positional tracking...well see I guess :? I am hoping it wont take 'too' many, this is theory at the moment....
:?: So if anyone has one of these Game Controllers, or a similar Cabella's one that they would like to Mod, let me know, and Ill see if I can lend a hand, and share my code and designs. I wouldn't mind some thoughts on this project as well, but try to keep it constructive, I am hoping others will learn from this project so lets not clutter with unhelpful comments ;) .
:) I have seen tons of tutorials on ripping the WIi-mote IR camera, and going through a lot of trouble it CAN be done. Now for less that $20 I can find used PC compatible Joystick with a Real IR Sensor all on a nice break-out board, and with a $3 part it talks to the Arduino with no problems that I can find. :geek:
:!: I will also try to keep you all updated as I get along so you can all see the outcome. Thank you all for you time.
~B :ugeek:
PS :arrow: I hope this all makes sense, feel free to ask any questions if anything is unclear, or if I left something out. :roll:
