Do wireless 360 and PS3 pads lag? Any reason to stick to a wired PCB?

[System_1]

Great work toodles(as usual ? ^^ )

[losif3r]

Impressive work Toodles. Thank you for your insight on the matter. Very interesting read.

[ShinJN]

I believe the transmitter/receiver is the small PCB that is coming off the PCB with 4 wires (I think it’s four or three). The bluetooth gizmo is wrapped in a foam so it sits snug in the controller housing. Earlier versions of the PCB had the gizmo also on a separate small PCB, but the PCB was soldered onto the SIXAXIS PCB.

[Toodles]

I believe the transmitter/receiver is the small PCB that is coming off the PCB with 4 wires (I think it’s four or three). The bluetooth gizmo is wrapped in a foam so it sits snug in the controller housing. Earlier versions of the PCB had the gizmo also on a separate small PCB, but the PCB was soldered onto the SIXAXIS PCB.

Why do I always spend so much time trying to answer trivia? I seriously can’t let stuff like that go until I know for sure…

Well, we’re both wrong. I thought it was the accelerometer for motion control, you thought it was the radio. I unplugged the small daughterboard on yours and went downstairs to test it out. Connected the PS button, and the PS3 comes right on; definitely not the radio. Went into Flow, moved the pcb around, fishy moved fine. Definitely not the accelerometer.

So, I can’t tell you what the daughterboard is, but I can tell you two things it isn’t. I still think the metal box is the bluetooth part; it looks too damn close to other bluetooth modules I’ve seen.

[ShinJN]

The ribbon cable, and a small connector very much like the one on the SIXAXIS pcb, both came from Digikey. I was planning on making a ‘hack helper’ for the Sixaxis, so the soldering would be easier and you just plug in the ribbon cable, but flex pcb parts are a bit spendy. I’ll put it in when I send the pcb back; you’ll still have to solder to small legs though, so I cant say it will be easier work, but it may be less stressfull.

Cost is not an issue with me. Thanks for including it. Do you have the Digikey catalog numbers? I wish the site was more visually friendly.

[ShinJN]

Why do I always spend so much time trying to answer trivia? I seriously can’t let stuff like that go until I know for sure…

Well, we’re both wrong. I thought it was the accelerometer for motion control, you thought it was the radio. I unplugged the small daughterboard on yours and went downstairs to test it out. Connected the PS button, and the PS3 comes right on; definitely not the radio. Went into Flow, moved the pcb around, fishy moved fine. Definitely not the accelerometer.

So, I can’t tell you what the daughterboard is, but I can tell you two things it isn’t. I still think the metal box is the bluetooth part; it looks too damn close to other bluetooth modules I’ve seen.

lol. Yes, unanswered trivia bugs the hell out of me. I always have to know the answer. Going off on a tangent here, but I was looking at some old posts and it just amazes how far the tech community has evolved. Custom joysticks, electronics, joystick parts availability, etc. You especially have progressed very far. From asking basic electronics questions to making your own PCBs. Too good.

[vapulus]

Yet another reason to love Toodles. He’s our friendly, neighborhood tech voodoo mystic.

[Toodles]

I appreciate the kind words guys.

and, you know, if any of y’all have would be up for sharing some PSN games, I’d love to actually have stuff to play on my PS3 </begging>

[Ikagi-chan]

Aha, i knew this thread was still around on Tech Talk somewhere. I read up on your tests a while back, but I never got a chance to comment on them.

Toodles, I have to say that your tests should cleanly disprove any notion the members of this forum have that wireless gamepads perform worse. I was actually rather pleased to see the results of this test, especially right at this moment since this means that when I mod my HRAP2:SA to accept project boxes, I can easily have my stick be wireless. It’s very cool stuff and this definitely means that you’ll get a lot of customers lining to get your SIXAXIS/DualShock 3 Adapter Board if you and ShinJN decide to get it fabricated and sold. Of course, I’ll be one of them.:wgrin:

This definitely should go into the Essentials Thread. There’s just so much useful info in here.

[NateS]

Sorry to dig this up after so long, but I have a question relevant to this thread. Toodle’s test had a resolution of one frame. I assume that game runs at 60f/s or 16ms/f. At this resolution, I don’t think it is possible to say that there is zero lag with wireless. The tests showed it was rare to see a difference, hinting at a maximum lag definitely < 16ms and probably quite a bit smaller. How many tests were done? If a significant number of tests were done and still a difference was not seen, what would be a reasonable guess at the possible lag? < 4ms? I’m not saying wireless has lag that affects gameplay, just that the test cannot prove zero lag.

[Sarda]

Pretty amazing results right there!

But y’know what concers me? Is there any possible loss in performance due to distance from the console? And what about due to low batteries?

[lilleboff]

I know this is an old thread, but I just gotta say thanks a lot for the testing and mythbusting. When I played Counter-Strike, I’d always play with wired keyboard and mouse because I was afraid of just the tiniest lag, but I see there was nothing to be afraid of.

Pretty amazing results right there!

But y’know what concers me? Is there any possible loss in performance due to distance from the console? And what about due to low batteries?

It doesn’t make sense that there would be any difference due to the range. The signals still travel at the speed of light (3e8 m/s), so there’s no way that any practical range away from the console would make a difference. I also think the controllers are sending the signals in the same strength regardless of battery power, so it wouldn’t make a difference either. It’s all in your mind!!!