Lynxmotion Tech Support

Hello friends! i post here a question because i can't find info on how to link the Mad Catz Microcon wireless Xbox and GameCube controllers to duemilanove botboarduino or Atom pro botboard 2, it's because a friend have those controllers lying around and i like to buy them at a really cheap price (both looks so great, both are Mad Catz, and both works great) to use as an alternate controller for robotic projects and other applications.

could any roboteer, master, Guru or Wizard that already have done some project like that??? if not, why those controllers are not used with those kits or projects?

Note: the Xbox controller is for the first x-box, not for the 360.

now the images:

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[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

Looks like some sort of coaxial connector (?) on the receivers, what's the output of these connectors?

Have you searched for hacks on these?

Alan KM6VV

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Visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SherlineCNC/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HexapodRobotIK/

well , first none of the controllers had a coaxial connector... i think that the receivers have the same specs like the wired ones, so i found a couple of pages with useful information:

there's some info about the connector in the x-box controller:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To- ... ox1-cable/

about the Gamecube controller, i found this:

http://www.int03.co.uk/crema/hardware/g ... ontrol.htm

both pages are interesting but i have no idea about the interfacing or the code for botboarduino and botboard 2 so that is the request...

_________________
[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

Both of your references speak of USB, most 'bot boards used here and elsewhere do not have USB interfaces! Maybe with a BeagleBoard...

So I guess that's why you don't hear of them being used.

Alan KM6VV

_________________
Visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SherlineCNC/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HexapodRobotIK/

ok so i think i need an extra chip (like usb to serial) to be able to use those controllers with botboard 2 and botboarduino? isn't possible to make a code to read them? or it's too challenging to make them work?

look at this:

https://github.com/brownan/Gamecube-N64-Controller (maybe here is the solution... )

but still need some light with the X-box controller, because i would like to use it too...

_________________
[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

that controller interface does not look like the two in your earlier post.

Sure! go try that interface.

Alan KM6VV

_________________
Visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SherlineCNC/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HexapodRobotIK/

the images can haul the vision... but actually, the connectors they have are the same connectors used on their respective game consoles.

about trying that interface off course! now i start to develop this code with the duemilanove, if i get stuck, then ill post here for more help.

Thanks!

_________________
[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

As far as Xbox360 controllers goes, thats a nice controller they have some RTFM about how to connect a RF board to a pc with an arduino.. there is some strange initialization string that has to be done to sync the controller to the RF board. The RF board is straight USB.

Maybe if you had an oscilloscope and poked around you might be able to find a data out pin of sorts to use it..

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Is the warranty voided yet? ... and why not?

yes, but i can't do that, the only problem is caused by this controller, because this is for the first X-box, not for the X-box 360... notice that there's no leds to show the number of players

well about the initialization string, you're right, this small protocol is used to check the reliability of the controller (in other words to check if the controller is a X-box controller) and to check the state of the buttons and sticks.

because this controller is an old x-box controller,i think there's no such strange string (well by the moment ) because i don't have an oscilloscope, ill try to make the audio scope to watch those signals. if there's something strange, then ill report that to yours.

_________________
[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

There is such a beast as a usb host shield for the arduino. I've never used it but from what I got from reading the discription it allows you to control just about any usb device..

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Devon Simmons, Former Programmer for Lynxmotion.
I can try to help, but I can only offer you my best effort.

well, i find something, this is the shield (i like this page because there's a complete documentation including some source code!)

http://www.circuitsathome.com/arduino_u ... d_projects

and there's a page in my area:

http://www.tiendaderobotica.com/tienda/ ... eldUSBHost

also, this demo looks awesome i think we're on the correct way!



thanks for the info Dev5994!

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[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

i've found something weird about xbox controller look at this:

http://pic-controllers.blogspot.com/200 ... oller.html

the code is here (inside the pdf file):

http://www.google.com.co/url?sa=t&rct=j ... Yg&cad=rja

for me this isn't clear, is a controller to control an xbox controller? makes me no sense

more news coming soon...

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[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

He created a way to physically manipulate the controller without hacking it up. Fairly sure this has no relevance to what you want to do.. (control a robot with an Xbox controller?) You're going to have to figure out if there's a way to interface with the controller directly. I've never wanted to use an Xbox controller for my robots so i can't really help. I'd start looking for how the Xbox controller communicates with the console. For example the PS2 controller uses SPI to talk to the playstation which makes it easy to hack to our needs. Your controller could use spi, i2c, usb, the list goes on... See if anyone has figured out how the controller talks and then you'll have an idea of what you'll need to do.

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Devon Simmons, Former Programmer for Lynxmotion.
I can try to help, but I can only offer you my best effort.

Yeah but this information is still a secret, because at this moment i can't find something useful about that controller, also, i only found topics about the 360 one, and this is a pain because the controller in fact is for the first xbox (i mean the classic xbox first generation) that info is almost nonexistent around the net... any help will be appreciated...

about the GameCube controller, I'm studying the code and the signals, to try to understand how it works, at least this can be used with the kits.

NOTE: if someone can share information relevant to the xbox first generation controller protocol, please post here, it would be appreciated

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[-_-]
bip!

I want to know god's thoughts, the rest are details!!!

If you can't find the information you'll have to reverse engineer the protocol yourself. I wouldn't even begin to understand how to go about do that so it looks like you're on your own.

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Devon Simmons, Former Programmer for Lynxmotion.
I can try to help, but I can only offer you my best effort.