Would someone mind helping me find/buy a pair of the top tier programmable pads? I’m planning on doing combos for several games and i don’t want to be restricted by input limits. The ASCII pads are the best ones right?
I just checked Yahoo Auctions for the first time in a long time and there are 4 ASCII Pads and 2 ASCII Sticks O_o
We should update the first post in this thread to point people to use a proxy service rather than go through me. I’ll do this if I have to, but it’s much less of a headache if people just do this directly with their own proxy bidding service. :tup:
- http://www.m-world-service.com/ <-- Masato-san, who I use
- http://www.japan-auction-agency.com/ Seems like a reasonable alternate solution
^-- I found my stash. PM sent.
I would like one as well.
command packs hold the info while the pad is turned off/disconnected…
So you can go as far as bringing of the those command packs to a friend’s house who has a pad/stick and show him a combo there.
Since there seems to be a bunch of people in this thread who deal with programmable sticks hard core, I need some input from you guys.
Starting soon, Ill be working on making my own PIC based controller board. Fun stuff, and Ill post everything including source and schematic when I’ve made enough progress.
One of the features that would be nice to have, even if it goes largely unused, is recording and playback. What I’d like is input on how you would like for it to work.
The pcb is planned for 6 buttons, four directions, and start & select buttons. Other components such as buttons or LED’s could be added, but require using more pins of the pic, which are already at a premium. Being able to use the base 6+2 buttons and directions ONLY, would be a major perk, but of course would have to be done in a way to avoid interfering with normal play. So, feedback on button combinations for activating the recording? Different combination for ‘frame by frame’ recording? Selecting different recordings for playback?
Secondly, what would you feel are your “requirements” for it to be usable by you? How often to poll the controls, how much storage, how many different recordings, etc.
In short, tell me how your dream programmable stick would work like. Any input is appreciated.
I went through my closet, and found that I have two extra - if peeps want one, email me – they’d be about $20-25 bucks (they’re cheap in Japan, but it cost $15 to get them over, then shipping down to you — importing stuff from Japan sucks). shrug
Feedback from laugh and Magnetro is very appreciated guys.
I would like to get as much of this as possible done with the PIC that’ll be the heart of the PCB, the 18F4550. With 2k RAM and polling at 60Hz, that’d be storage for roughly 1024 frames, or about 15 seconds. Would that be enough?
Having two additional buttons as optional for the programming would not be difficult; Those that weren’t interested in programming would just not hook them up and it’d never be an issue nor interfere with game play. So that isn’t so much a problem, just two pins set aside as optional.
A screen though would be. Using a ‘fancy LCD screen’ would actually take up less pins because of the serial communication they use, compared to an array of LED’s, but the programming involved would take a lot of time, and I don’t think I can properly squeeze it in with my current plans. Plus I seriously don’t know if I could fit it in with dreamcast support; I suspect DC support will take up a LOT of clock cycles.
So, I’m gonna break it up in two and leave the advanced programming as a separate ‘maybe’ project for later. I’ll include in the schematics were it would attach. For the base PCB, I’ll include what I can, but it would likely be along the lines of:
roughly 1000 frames recording (limited by ram)
two optional buttons for programming
frame by frame recording or on-the-fly
single LED for programming status(?)
Are you planning to make it platform-specific? I’m hoping to make a c-stamp based controller for the PS2.
Regardless, you might consider making it a USB device for programming, recording, and/or direct control - which would, of course, be very slick, even with a limited computer-side interface.
Regarding on-controller combo memory - you’re probably going to get large returns by using some variety of run-length encoding with a relatively small increase in program complexity. (For example, if you have 8 buttons and 4 directions, you can use the last 4bits for run-length and still align on 16 bits, and increase the recording duration by a large factor.)
Best of luck.
I know, I just imported an arcade board lol well, however much it is, is fine.
Go for it. The one I am planning on is NOT platform specific; it would go to a high density (VGA style) connector on the back of the stick, and each system would have a cord going to 15 pin matching connector with thumbscrews. Solid connection, and the PIC would determine which system was connected by checking which pins were connected to high or low. Many many platforms to be supported, or at least thats the plan. Im pretty sure I have enough clock cycles to try for dreamcast support, but Xbox and Xbox 360 may be out of the question. I have high hopes and suspect PS3 should be doable. I’ll be releasing everything once I have PC USB, Neo geo, and PSX implemented. The old school 16 bit and before systems will be simple to add on later.
The EEPROM on this chip is 256 bytes, and would be the only part that could be flashed and retain storage when disconnected unless I wanted to use additional components. 128 frames is hardly worth the hassle. Maybe for the optional programming piece down the road, but not for the main PCB.
However, the PCB will support both PC USB joystick functionality, as well as firmward upgrades via USB.
Though about it, and discarded it. I could go 12 bits per frame, but if I did, I wouldnt have a way to put in more than a single recording, and it would have to run until all 1000 frames have been completed; Scratch that, if I used ‘impossible’ settings, like up+down or left+right, it could be done, but would mean it couldn’t be used for games supporting those, like say DDR. I’ll put some more though into it. It might be worth the bump to 20 seconds.
I wish you would have found them before I bought one from Eidrian.
D’oh! Sorry, I completely forgot the run length encoding, and Magnetro pointed it out to me. Yes, RLE would definitely be a neccessity and frankly I never even thought about it. So those 1000 frames would actually be around 500 frames and each of those frames being 1-255 frames in duration…whips out calculator…Maximum recording of 35.4 minutes 
, or if there was change every single frame for all 1000 frames, 16.6 seconds of furious mashing. And that’s with the base pcb, not the possible future programming module.
Actually, as long as they’re generic IO pins, one could just hook the LED’s in-line with the buttons, and then drive the lines during play-back.
If memory serves, all of the pins planned for the buttons and stick are configurable for either input or output, so should be able to do that. As a perk, if I have the LED getting the +5v and the negative end of the LED attached to the data line, then it would also light correctly during normal play. The PIC has a maximum sinking of around 200-250mA; possible problem of sinking too much power this way.
0nly time something similar happened to me was that when I had the first action lasting only 1 frame.
yeah thats common, just make 001 blank. thats what i do for everything I program its no big deal
what game are you programming stuff for?
Sorry to bump this ancient thread but I want to know how these programmable sticks/pads generally work before I purchase one.
to the extent of “does this thing make it super easy to input 1/60th of a second timing moves” or “input everything myself but it’s easier to put commands together so it only makes the load of doing super difficult things easier”
if it basically makes just frame things easier on my end, i want to buy one and can probably do that on my own. being able to record db for exactly 43 frames or something would be a godsend in doing what i want to.
alternatively, if any of the people who bought one have no use for it anymore and would be willing to part with it for a reasonable price, i’m listening.
i need one of these please, can someone help me out?
this would go good w/ mvc2 training since there is no record mode in the training options like in most i.e. cvs2.