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Capacitive Gamepad

A sculptural USB gamepad with capacitive touchpoints as inputs

kalKal
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A block of cardboard housing an arduino and an Adafruit MPR121 breakout board that functions as a USB gamepad. Inputs are scavenged screws.

(see also https://www.ebay.com/itm/403416958598 )

Dimensions are based roughly on the SNES controller, that was the design guideline. I kept it modifiable for some reason, there's a part of the back cover board that can be cut out and the 2ndary components are connected to the arduino by bits of female header. Usability was a secondary concern to beauty, this is not the right way to make a gamepad, but it turns out very usable. I'm really happy with the functionality. It feels good in the hand, too, i love the texture this kind of papier mache creates.

capPad0.5.ino

Finished code

ino - 4.81 kB - 07/12/2021 at 17:36

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  • 1 × Arduino Pro Micro 3rd party, any 32u4-based 'ino would work
  • 1 × MPR121 Breakout board https://www.adafruit.com/product/1982
  • 1 × Misc bits & bobs cardboard, wire, solder, appropriate-sized screws

  • 1
    Main Wiring

    Connect MPR121 to arudino i2c and power. On a Micro this is pins 2&3 plus VCC and GND. Flash the arduino and make sure everything works as you like. Breaking out the RST pin to a tactile switch is probably unnecessary, i've had no problem re-flashing the 'ino since it's been put together, but it's a good idea.

    /* Capacitive touch sensor gamepad
     *  Intended for use with Adafruit's breakout and library for the MPR121 capacitive
     *  sensor module and a USB-native Ardiuno (e.g. has a ATmega32U4).
     *  
     *  Much propers to Matthew Heironimus for his Joystick library. There are a bunch of 
     *  other libraries for the same purpose but i don't even care if they're better, his
     *  is far and away the best documented i've found.
     *  (https://github.com/MHeironimus/ArduinoJoystickLibrary/)
      */
    /* ELECTRODE MAP:
       11                 10
          7           0
        8   6       3   2
          9           1
              4   5
    MPR electrode #:  SNES equiv.:    associated Joystick.h control:
      0                   Y               b4
      1                   A               b1
      2                   B               b2
      3                   X               b3
      4                   select          b6
      5                   start           b7
      6                   D-right         x+
      7                   D-down          y-
      8                   D-left          x-
      9                   D-up            y+
      10                  Rb              b5
      11                  Lb              b4
      ((Without making it pretend to be XInput there probably has to be some kind
      of reassignation by the end-user.))
    */
    
    const uint8_t Nu=7;
    const uint8_t Nd=9;
    const uint8_t Nl=8;
    const uint8_t Nr=6;
    const uint8_t Na=1;
    const uint8_t Nb=2;
    const uint8_t Nx=3;
    const uint8_t Ny=0;
    const uint8_t Nrb=10;
    const uint8_t Nlb=11;
    const uint8_t Nst=5;
    const uint8_t Nse=4;
    const uint8_t padDelay = 10;  // i haven't noticed any difference with values 0~25, YMMV
    
    #include <Joystick.h>
    #include <Wire.h>;
    #include <Adafruit_MPR121.h>
    
    Adafruit_MPR121 cap = Adafruit_MPR121();
    Joystick_ pad(JOYSTICK_DEFAULT_REPORT_ID,JOYSTICK_TYPE_GAMEPAD,
      8, 0,                  // Button Count, Hat Switch Count
      true, true, false,     // X and Y, but no Z Axis
      false, false, false,   // No Rx, Ry, or Rz
      false, false,          // No rudder or throttle
      false, false, false);  // No accelerator, brake, or steering
    uint16_t padread;     // to hold inputs for processing
    
    int8_t yInertia = 0;  // for cleaning SCNODS, Simultaneous CardiNal Opposite Direction System
    int8_t xInertia = 0;
    
    
    void setup() {
      delay(10);
      cap.begin(0x5A);
      pad.begin(false); // "By default, all methods update the game controller state immediately." The whole rest of loop{} probably doesn't take as long as talking to the host 12 times. No, wait, prolly the library has delays built in
      pad.setXAxisRange(-1, 1);
      pad.setYAxisRange(-1, 1);  
    }
    
    void loop() {
      padread = cap.touched();
      
      // D-PAD:
      switch(((padread & (1<<Nu)) && (1<<Nu)) + ((padread & (1<<Nd)) && (1<<Nd))) {       // how many of up and down are pressed?
        case 0:                         // none? do nothing, forget everything
          pad.setYAxis(0);
          yInertia = 0;
          break;
        case 1:                         // just one?
          if ((padread & (1<<Nu)) && (1<<Nu)) {     // is it up? then go up
            pad.setYAxis(1);
            yInertia = 1;
          } else {                      // otherwise it's gotta be down, go down.
            pad.setYAxis(-1);
            yInertia = -1;
          }
          break;
        case 2:                         // both are pressed?
          if (yInertia == 0) {break;}   // were we standing still? keep standing still
          if (yInertia > 0) {           // if we were going up, keep going up
            pad.setYAxis(1);
            yInertia = 1;
          } else {                      // otherwise we must've been going down, go down
            pad.setYAxis(-1);
            yInertia = -1;
          }
      } // end y-axis, do the same for x-axis
      switch(((padread & (1<<Nl)) && (1<<Nl)) + ((padread & (1<<Nr)) && (1<<Nr))) {
        case 0:
          pad.setXAxis(0);
          xInertia = 0;
          break;
        case 1:
          if ((padread & (1<<Nr)) && (1<<Nr)) {
            pad.setXAxis(1);
            xInertia = 1;
          } else {
            pad.setXAxis(-1);
            xInertia = -1;
          }
          break;
        case 2:
          if (xInertia == 0) {break;}
          if (xInertia > 0) {
            pad.setXAxis(1);
            xInertia = 1;
          } else {
            pad.setXAxis(-1);
            xInertia = -1;
          }
      } // end of x-axis
      // END OF D-PAD
      
      // non-hysterical buttons:
      pad.setButton(0, ((padread & (1<<Na)) && (1<<Na))); // a
      pad.setButton(1, ((padread & (1<<Nb)) && (1<<Nb))); // b
      pad.setButton(2, ((padread & (1<<Nx)) && (1<<Nx))); // x
      pad.setButton(3, ((padread & (1<<Ny)) && (1<<Ny))); // y
      pad.setButton(4, ((padread & (1<<Nlb)) && (1<<Nlb))); // LB
      pad.setButton(5, ((padread & (1<<Nrb)) && (1<<Nrb))); // RB
      pad.setButton(6, ((padread & (1<<Nse)) && (1<<Nse))); // select/back
      pad.setButton(7, ((padread & (1<<Nst)) && (1<<Nst))); // start
      
      pad.sendState();
      delay(padDelay);
    }
  • 2
    Build the front face

    Map out one piece of cardboard with placements for the screws

  • 3
    Strain relief

    Cut a notch in a piece of plastic to hold the USB line from pulling out and cut a slot into the cardboard face to hold that. I could've just glued the arduino and the cable to the cardboard but this feels like a better solution.

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heinz wrote 01/20/2022 at 07:26 point

Very cool!

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