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Revised D-Pad design


JohnPCAE

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I was a little bored tonight so I fired up Eagle and updated my Intellivision D-Pad design. It's a board designed to slip into a Sega Master System gamepad and passively give you true 8-directional movement (i.e. no power required). The trick to it is that it relies on the up and down directions using DPST connections: in other words, when you press up or down, two separate contacts touch the board instead of just one. It would require a custom-made silicone connector boot (or whatever they're called). Too bad I don't have one :(

 

Anyway, attached are a couple of ZIP files: one has the D-Pad design itself, and the other one has a custom library I made that contains the conductive button types (DPST for up/down, 3-way for left/right). There's also a screnshot showing the board design.

 

The little PAD rectangle is special: you need to glue a small piece of plastic there to keep the SMS D-Pad from wearing its way through the board. That's what Sega did on their boards, at least.

IntyDPad_1_1.zip

conductive-buttons.zip

post-7945-0-91982600-1429673052_thumb.jpg

Edited by JohnPCAE
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I've been doing some investigating for a while and it *might* be possible to assemble a conductive silicone button set with three components: the up and down ones would come from PS3 components and the left and right from any suitable D-pad. The PS3 controller has a button with a wide silicone part that has two contacts spaced apart, such that it might be usable as a DPST button. You have to be careful, though, because there are different variants of the PS3 conductive silicone out there and not all are of the "right" type.

 

The type that might work (the button in the middle):

 

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_191507_5.jpg

 

from the top (note how the center button has a wide plateau:

 

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_241825_1.jpg

 

The type that WON'T work:

 

http://g04.s.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1B4r9FVXXXXaZXFXXq6xXFXXXP/202755812/HTB1B4r9FVXXXXaZXFXXq6xXFXXXP.jpg

 

I have samples of the "good" type and I'm waiting for a D-pad to come in the mail so I can try some experimenting. I'm thinking that a custom 3D-printed top bezel for the controller might work if it has suitable pins for holding the various silicone pieces in place. It would mean changing the board design to accommodate them, but that's an easy task. Right now, the board is designed for the stock Sega Master System controller.

Edited by JohnPCAE
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