RARusk

Although I still have some minor issues to work out here my optical rotary project for "Tempest 2000" is essentially completed. I made the pictures a bit large to allow for a better look so I apologize in advance if this causes any problems. The first picture shows the finished main unit. The case used to be a fighter stick made by Capcom for the Super Nintendo that I had sitting in a closet for a few years. The rotary controller taken from the Logitech Wingman Warrior joystick is on the left. The three main firebuttons, from left to right is C-B-A, is on the right. The red and black mottled stuff is arcade laminate. It has also been painted with two layers of flat black model paint then buffed with a rag to give it a mattish look. The second picture is of the 9-pin plug that a custom built cable, that will link it to the joypad interface, will be attached to. The pinouts are as follows (going from left to right): Row 1 ***** 1 - Rotary Controller (Left) 2 - Rotary Controller (Right) 3 - Keypad Column 1 (Firebutton "A") 4 - Keypad Column 2 (Firebutton "B") 5 - Keypad Column 3 (Firebutton "C") Row 2 ***** 6 - +5VDC 7 - Not Connected 8 - Keypad Row 2 (Firebuttons "A", "B", "C") 9 - Ground

I got the firebuttons working correctly and did a runthrough. Played a couple of games and the rotary controller works well. However, there is a new issue that has cropped up and this may take some time to solve. On the standard encoders a signal is sent when the center contact touches a pole. On this optical encoder a constant signal is being sent through the two wires heading back to the joypad. This constant signal is interfering with the main keypad. In short, when the rotary encoder is connected to the joypad interface, the keypad will NOT function. I can't change the camera, turn the music on or off, or reset. I also found that I can't change the lettering around when I enter a high score on the Tempest 2000 game itself (can you enter your initials when using a regular encoder?). What I need now is to find something, a buffer or a filter, that can make the signals from the optical encoder more compatible with the joypad interface so I can regain use of the keypad, and the ability to enter my initials, without screwing up the optical encoder output. But, despite this new problem, everything is pretty much finished. I will start taking pictures tomorrow and write up the stuff to accompany it. I will ask around a bit to see what I can do to fix the signal problem.

Actually, since I have made quick progress since I started this topic, I will wait until everything is finished before taking more pictures and then will start a new topic showing off the finished product. Tonight was rather frustrating. I figured out that the keypad used a row/column method of input and did some rewiring. I now have the keypad working but I couldn't get the damn firebuttons to work properly no matter what. I was getting pissed off so I decided to look at the JagFAQ to see if I could find any answers. It turns out that everything is mapped like a giant keypad. I am used to having the firebuttons use ground for their power. But the three firebuttons don't use ground but a keypad row for "power". Now it makes sense. Nasty little paradigm shift I am having to make here. I will need to make a minor revision to the main unit. The firebuttons are currently attached to ground. I will need to remove that line and attach it to one of the unused lines and attach it to Keypad Row 2. This should fix that problem. This also reduces the number of wires used in the joypad hack. I will also designate two pins as Rotary (Left) and Rotary (Right) for rotary controllers and place them on the wire strip (like I had in the picture in the topic about wiring up the Logitech device) as a precaution. Hopefully I will get this damn thing working correctly tomorrow now that I've seen the schematic on how everything is mapped out.

"Cool. I'll send you my address so you can send me a unit for ...uhhh ... a review for a major website. You'll get it back. I promise. Eventually." Uh-huh. Sure you will..... Anyway, during the wire-up process I've hit some snags. The Up and Down pins on the plug don't want to work properly (they are spazzing out T2K - the Left and Right pins are no problem). The other buttons seem to work fine. And I've just realized that I am going to need to add more wires to get the keypad pins to work. It seems that when you press a key on the keypad the signal goes to two places not just one so I have to run two wires from each pin (I currently have just one wire per key). I'll get everything to work.....eventually.

"I think you need to send this to me for, ummmm .... quality control purposes. Yeah." I used to be a gametester so I know a thing or two about "quality control". Can't blame you though. This is the single most ambitious controller project I've done to date. And probably the coolest. All of the painting is done. The stand is completed and I am done with the joypad case. Tomorrow, after work, I will wire up the 25-pin plug into the joypad and test everything out. If everything checks out, I could have this all finished up by Sunday.

The main unit is completed. I put on two layers of flat black model paint on the sides and buffed it with a rag to give it a matted look. After some trimming I then wired up the components to a 9-pin plug which is where the cable will be attached to. I am mostly done with the joypad case. I just need to paint the bottom area where the plug holder is. The stand is mostly completed also. The cable will be the final stage of the project.

"Soul Calibur" "MDK2" "Sonic Adventure" "Sonic Adventure II" "Dead or Alive 2" Those are some of the titles that immediately come to my mind. By the way, I don't know if you guys know this, but on some of the DreamCast games, if you stick them in a PC or Mac, there are folders with all kinds of goodies in them. "MDK2" has a lot of stuff on it (pictures and MP3s), "DOA2" has pictures of the girls in bikinis, and both Sonic Adventures have wallpapers you can use. I don't know if anybody has made a list of what games have bonus material. And, no, "Soul Calibur" doesn't have any bonus stuff. To find if a game has bonus stuff place it in your PC or Mac and look for a folder that says "Bonus" or has the game's title.

Thanks. I did a little bit of work on the joypad case tonight (trimming off excess glue from where I installed the plug holder). I would have done more but I acquired "Red vs. Blue" (Season Three) after work and, well.....

"How are you powering the optical encoder?" The +5VDC from the joypad interface. I have been masking around the laminate in preparation for the paintjob. I hope to get that started soon.

I am most of the way finished with the main unit. I am about halfway done with the interface and most of the way done with it's stand. The cable will probably be the last thing done. I will post more pictures as I progress.

In this picture you can see the bottom of the encoder and main board. I cut away the encoder area from the Logitech unit with a Dremel and glued it, along with the necessary screw posts for the main board, into the main unit with plastic welder, an excellent adhesive that behaves like plastic when it hardens.

In the next picture you can see the underneath of the top half. This is where the firebuttons are attached. You can clearly see where I had cut out the original plastic. I was fortunate to find the microswitches where the back contact is bent at a 90 degree angle. Any microswitch that had the back contact sticking straight out wouldn't allow me to fit it in the case.

As some you may know from this topic, I managed to get the rotory optical encoder from the Logitech Wingman Warrior joystick to work with "Tempest 2000". However, the hard part was to construct something that would allow me to fully use this encoder with the game. There are four parts to this project. The main unit (the encoder and firebuttons), the interface (a hacked joypad), a stand for the interface, and the cable that will connect the main unit to the interface. I am now far enough in the construction phase to allow for a sneak peek. In the picture below you can see the main unit itself. The case was a Capcom Fighter Joystick for the SNES. The red and black mottled stuff you see is arcade laminate. I had some leftover from another project and used most of the remaining laminate on this one. You can see the encoder knob on the left and the three arcade firebuttons on the right. I started by cutting away the joystick and button supports. Then I glued on .060 thickness plastic and cut out holes for the new stuff. Then I layered on the laminate after that. I still need to do a paintjob along the sides and middle.

These are the three MODs I got: Cannonfo.MOD D2ktitle.MOD Tempest.MOD I still would like to find a program on OSX for MOD conversion because I got a bunch of others on an old machine I would like to listen to again.

Anybody here that knows of a program that can convert MODs into MP3s for Mac OSX?

I don't have "Mission: Impossible" but I'll bet that it is a lot better than "Daikatana" which I do have.....

Excellent! Glad it's all working out. Honestly, get youself a Dremel set. Once you get one you'll wonder how you got along without it.

I have been a FAQ writer for the past four years and my personal opinion is that, because of the anarchaic nature of the internet, you're not going to have much control of where your FAQ goes after you initially post it regardless of what site(s) you prefer. So instead of the doing the "list of what sites can host my FAQ" routine (although I had initially thought that those who did that were being overly defensive - this topic has cleared that up for me) I just state that if you want to host it to ask me first. If you understand and respect your audience then that respect will come back to you. I have never turned down anybody who has asked and I can get a feel of where my work has gone from those who do ask me. I try to present myself as professionally as possible within my work but add a little humor and insight along the way. But I also want to be seen as a nice and helpful person which is why my distribution policy is the way it is. GameFAQs is where I first went to get help on "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" when it came out and it is here where I was inspired to do my own work. It is the first site to get my latest updates and, thanks to this topic, I may add something to the beginning of my indicating that GFAQs is where my latest work can be found first. I post on some of the message boards from time to time but usually when I have something useful to add or something fun to share. I agree that they need to cut down on the message boards. I find it incredible that they have a board for every single game on the site including imports I have never heard of. If you're wondering, this is the list of work I have done (as taken from the beginning of one of my guides): Strategy Guides *************** --"Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" (PS2) --"Grand Theft Auto III" --"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" --"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" --"Stubbs The Zombie" --"The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay" One of the earlier versions of my TCoR: EFBB guide can be found in the book "GameFAQs Presents.....The Ultimate Xbox Strategy Guide" published by Future Network USA. FAQs **** --Differences Between The Three Versions Of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" for PlayStation 2 --"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" Suggested Music List FAQ (for Xbox and PC versions) --"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" Hidden Text FAQ --"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" Hidden Text FAQ I haven't done any updates in awhile. I am currently building an arcade style rotory controller for "Tempest 2000" (Atari Jaguar). When I am done with that I will probably do some updating to my guides (hopefully in about a month).

Considering the tools at hand that is a very professional job. As for me, I have quite a few tools. But the main one is my wonderful Dremel set which has helped in many of my hacking projects. I have just started putting the arcade laminate on my rotory project. I still need to cut out the paddle section out of my Logitech Wingman unit and put it into the new case. I had a feeling you yanked your encoder from the other unit. I knida feel a little guilty whenever I destroy another controller so I can make a homebrew unit (like the Capcom Fighter Stick I am using for the rotory controller case). I still need to work on the Jag joypad and the stand it goes on. *sigh* A lot of work still to do. BTW, how's your unit handling?

"I'm glad you like the size of the encoder I used." Until now I always envisioned these encoders to be these large potientiometers. Whenever I saw pictures of Tyrant's homebrew controllers I always wondered how he managed to fit one of those inside the controller. Now I know. By the way, did you buy another encoder to use in your project or did you yank it from the Chaos Reins rotory controller?

Impressive. I didn't realize they made rotary assemblies that small. As for myself, I am currently doing my own rotary controller project using the Logitech Wingman Warrior optical paddle. I am going to graft the assembly into what used to be a Capcom six-button fighter stick for the Super Nintendo. The three main buttons are going to be arcade fire buttons and the unit will be connected to a Jaguar joypad that will serve as the interface for the rotary controller (but can still be used as a regular joypad in a pinch). I will also be using some leftover arcade laminate from another controller project for the top of the rotary controller. I still have a ways to go before I am finished but I hope to have it done within the next three weeks. I will post pictures of the unit when I am done.

There is a large capacitor on the motherboard (1 Farad) that will keep the time for a few hours before completely discharging. I've heard that if you replace it with a large capacitance aerogel capacitor (the largest one I think) you can maintain the time, when off grid, for about a week. However, these large aerogel capacitors will run you about $30 minimum.

Your game save should still be on the hard drive. If it is not then it may indicate a bad hard drive. As for resetting the clock, there is no battery inside the Xbox to maintain the time function when the unit is unplugged unlike most units (PS2, GameCube, DreamCast). I did, however, place a rechargable battery inside my Xbox which retains time for about a couple of days before dying. It's better than resetting it every time I turn the thing on.

Good points all. I stand humbly corrected. Just putting in my two cents.

Considering that these phones also do text why not bring back some of the old InfoCom games like "Zork" and "Planetfall"? At least you don't have to rely on graphical performance and maybe even create new text games,