Anatomy of an Xbox360 Controller

Ok not up dated for a month so here goes,

I now have 75% of materials, and today I obtained a new and exciting caché of components, so goodbye xbox controller, hello two omi-directional analogue sticks, two microswitches and two rotational switches. I also have two electric motors/ vibrational controls. 

So pictures and I must warn all younger readers, these images do show naked circuits.

Infra Red Webcam Hacks and Why Once Again My Mac Is Useless

I have now (I believe) got my working model sorted out all the parts are coming together in my brain, I just have one problem and hopefully it can be traversed with software, and that is that all my ideas are based on Windows based hardware hacks, and I admit I really should have seen this coming.

I have decided on two gloves the right hand will primarily be the mouse controller, this will work on gesture control using the Webcam-Whiteboard program. This will require me to hack a Web-cam and remove the Infra Red filter. I can then cannibalise an old mouse for the left and right click. This will mean losing almost one complete set of control sets, but this can be regained on the other hand.

The left hand will then become the other control, W,A,S,D controls I am aiming to have connected to an old analogue stick circuit, failing that I will aim to have Flex switches than can be used as directional controls and Reed Switches for button presses.

List (this is literally bits of wire and stuff)

·         2 pairs of nylon work gloves

·         About 2ft square of neoprene

·         Meters and meters of wire

·         A roll of conductive thread

·         Infra Red LED (2)

·         Old USB mouse

·         Old analogue controller

·         Between 4 and 8 Reed switches

·         4 Flex switches

·         One iPac2 unit

·         One high FPS webcam with the IR filter removed

Software

·         Webcam-Whiteboard

·         A Game

·         iPac2 controller interface

Links:

Webcam-whiteboard
Analgoue Controller
IR pass filter for webcams

Developments, Devlopement and Devlopers

Ok generally I feel the design is done, all I need to do is source the materials, the gloves will not take a long time to put together so that is done.

I have decided (for now) to stick to reed switches and magnets as my primary switches.

Where I am now stuck is on the tracking of movement, I have in my mind 3 options.

1: Repurpose a mouse, either roller ball or optical, and then move the sensor (or ball) and buttons to other areas of the glove, the pros for this is it allows me to keep the mouse buttons, and the technology is fairly cheap. Cons, the technology is cheap but fairly large, so some of the dexterity of the device will be lost. I can only have mouse control. (This sounds like a weird thing to say but bare with me)

The link that supports this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-mouse-trackball/

2: Repurpose old game console analogue controls, the good thing about this is that I can use this as a switch and can be hooked in to the Ipac2 and attached to the W, A, S, D controls, and also be given a second level of control through the Ipac2 "Shift" command, maybe adding functional controls like Alt+ Tab window switching (using the analogue click and a directional control to change the main window, allowing control over a computer as well as a game. I am also hoping that I can switch out this control to replace an optical mouse, so that I can have "console" controller functionality without the need for a full pad.

Inspiration for this idea:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/10/how-to-analog-control-stick-for-your-sony-psp/

3: Use Webcam video tracking through freeware systems like FreeTrack this will allow me to use a hand or even the head to track movement, I could even use colour to have one hand track one move and one hand track the other, the best thing about this is it would let me show motion and gesture controls along with my tactile control system. The major issue here is that although the software is good, the learning curve for me is steep I will need to learn how to implement this into software as well as hardware.

Anyway two links for this:

http://www.free-track.net/english/

And this is a very cool instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/FPS-arcade-style-gun/

I’ll put this to Facebook and I expect most likely you will have got here through my Facebook link, but I would like some ideas on what to show this with, at first I wanted to build a simple maze or something for people to explore, but with the time that I have I think that this will be very poor in quality. SO if people could comment with games they think would be fun to play at the show using my system, unfortunately they do have to be PC or Mac games, I would prefer them to be something like an FPS or a really big RPG the more buttons the better! But also if your developing a game and you would like to work together in the sense that at the show we will hook your game up to my control system I’d be happy to talk about that too.

Big update 3 of 3 Revisiting Light Sensors

Was reading this article:

http://www.instructables.com/id/SNF-Drumming-MIDI-Glove-using-Arduino-and-light-se/

And realised that a small part of what I wanted to do this guy had achieved, but he is using open source hardware called Adriano I am of course using the iPac2 but I think some of the ideas are good ones, and so I have decided I will look again at using LDR light resistors, this may mean that ultimately I end up with two different versions of my final design, one using Reed Switches and magnets and the other using light resistors, over all costs will run into around the same thing, so that isn’t an issue, what I do need to do is work out exactly how I will show off my functionality of both systems, the difficulty is that with one Ipac2 board, although set up to allow for co-op use, I will effectively half my amount of overall contacts, I could work out a system for switching over the systems while keeping the main hub in a contained unit, possibly using terminals.

The other option of course is to have one hand use all Reed Switches and the other use LDR but untimely I would like to show each system independently.

So this weekends tasks:

1.     Build a flex switch (if this works then build 8 more)

2.     Test the LDR idea (if this works workout the pros/cons of LDR over Reed Switch

3.     Finalise the design

4.     Source materials

Big update 2 of 3

While designing this system I have been grappling with how I am going to wire up all the components, wire of course isn’t known for its thread like properties, so my options were to either wire the components through tubes mounted on the top of the fingers, until looked into conductive thread :

http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=275

The next thing that caught my eye was this tutorial:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Bi-Directional-Flex-Sensors/

Essentially creating a flex based switch this my add another level of functionality I hadn’t thought of before, it would also in some ways remove the need for sensors on any of the fingers. This tutorial also reminded me of a device I have yet to look at and really it is the grandaddy of this whole type of idea...

Link: http://www.cracked.com/funny-6165-nintendo-power-glove/

Now a collection of images:

Big Update 1 of 3

Spent the last few weeks scratching my head over the design of the gloves what I finally decided was that I would make a card board prototype of my first idea, a two material ribbed structure, essentially semi flexible ribs attached with a fully flexible material, my first thoughts were to use the nylon gloves I had been using as prototype testers for the components, I cut these down into fingers thumb and hand, I then used the dimensions of my hand that I had made a few weeks ago to make the ribs out of cardboard.

After getting into the first two fingers I reassembled the glove, this was to allow me to see the difference in dexterity unfortunately as I had calculated the lateral change in surface area, that is to say that flexing your fingers effectively lengthens the top and shortens the bottom of each finger. What I hadn’t allowed for was the change in width so although the cardboard ribs were measured to perfection they constricted movement, so back to the drawing board/ sketch book.

I’ve looked further into the idea of adding optical mouse control to one hand, and although it seems do able the relocation of the mouse buttons has proved to be a bit of a pain, what I really need is a better de-soldering tool, and a more comprehensive wiring diagram for the mouse I have.

A couple of links to go with post from the ever amazing Instructables.com

The first is a great article that goes through every step of home circuit board making followed by a ‘persistence of vision’ business card it an awesome idea and if I can get the costs down I might work out something similar for my own business cards.

Link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Circuit-Board-Lab-POV-Business-Card/

As business is a part of our brief, making business cards and websites and all of that, I might well look into showing off some of my electronics/ hardware/ engineering  skill in a business card format.

Here We G. G. G. Go, Wtih Version One Point Ohh

So the making begins in earnest. (Or at a pace that leave time for tea and biscuits.)

Dissertations are finished as far as I'm concerned it’s all about FMP form now on. So with that in mind its time to get down to business. Worked out the dimensions for my hands this evening then worked how much of fingers move, then drew the first (of many) wiring diagrams onto my hand with brio, the reasoning for this is that I get a more ergonomical design as I can make adjustments while looking at the mechanics of the hand.

This first set is for the primary function wiring, these being the Reed Switches that will give the main source of input control.

My next job (most likely tomorrow) is to make a 3D model on 3DsMax, and then a cardboard and nylon prototype. I wont actually wire this version up instead I will use string to workout how much wire I will need to in the final version.

The next job after that is to add the next levels of control, these being the optical mouse and secondary switches.

After that I will move onto designing the console/table top, this will be a secondary controller as although the user will be able to use the gloves with each other, they will also get extra functionality out a magnetized console, effectively allowing "typing" like gestures.




Right I've gone on long enough, here are some pictures of my hands covered in pen.

Musical stuff:
currently listening to this:
The Recvieing End Of Sirens: Between the Heart and the Synapse
If These Trees Could Talk: Above the Earth, Below the Sky
Manchester Orcestra: Simple Math(s)
The Damned Things: Ironiclast
Deaf Havana: Meet Me Halfway At Least
A Day To Remember: ALL SONGs
Rival Schools: Pedals (its no United by Fate but its still Rival Schools)