Hello all.
I am currently attempting to convert an Nintendo64 game controller to connect wirelessly to a computer for an emulator.
Before you say that there is a device that already does this. I want to build it myself. I know I could take a wireless controller and put that inside my Nintendo64 controller, but I want to use what I have if at all possible.
My planned set up is to use my wireless keyboards chip inside the controller, map all the buttons to keys, and I have an idea for how to wire in the joystick.
The joystick uses an optical encoding system to determine where the stick is, similar to a ball mouse. This is also similar to how a wheel encoder is on a robot, which made me thing that maybe I can wire the joystick up to a picaxe chip and out put the signal in a way that will transfer over a keystroke system.
I have a few ideas for how the picaxe will communicate with the keyboard. One method I think might work is to convert the joystick signal to a pmw, which would hopefully on the computer work with emulators. This might not work however, since the emulator might not accept that rapid of input properly.
Another idea I have is to send the position data in either serial or parallel data form over multiple keys. I could convert the position to binary. One byte per axis. Then on the computers side make a program that will read the keys as binary and convert that something the emulator can accept. Either a mouse movement, or a joystick movement.
My last option that I can think of, and I think it's quite a long shot, but it might be possible to connect the joystick to the board from the optical mouse that came with the keyboard. This option would prove to be a hassle I think, due to the fact that I would probably not be able to connect the rotary optical encoded joystick to the (non ball mouse) optical mouse.
Any help is accepted. However I do not want to put another wireless computer controller into the n64 controller. And I do not want to use a third party Nintebdo64 controller to utilize their analog joysticks.
Thanks!
Daniel