Hold on tight. This is going to be a long post. I kept my temper in the video, but here I can just come out and let you know that I’m livid. each time I start thinking about this, I feel so angry and helpless that my face gets hot and my hands get shaky. I’m getting ahead of myself though, so lets just back up a little bit and talk about a pretty amazing kid named [Thomas].
[Thomas] has muscular dystrophy. This implies he’s going to gradually lose strength and control in his muscles over time. He has already lost his ability to stand, and even holding buttons on a game-pad for extended times can be difficult. Gaming, as you can imagine, is very essential to [Thomas] and people like him. It provides a release of frustration, like it does for all of us, but also a level playing ground. When he’s in the game, he’s like everyone else.
I did some quick research into what hardware is available. This is where I started to get angry. Something easy like this low pressure switch is incredibly overpriced. Take these two for example. Both are a single brief switch with a cable television and a case.
market price $79
market price $69
$70 dollars? $70 F*$&ING DOLLARS? This isn’t the computer interface, this is just the switch. we all know that we can purchase those switches at retail prices for under a dollar. At this point, I thought “man, these companies sure are inflating the price for insurance companies.”
I discussed the insurance thought to [Thomas’] Mother. She said something that made me want to just sit down and cry best there. She replied “Oh no, the insurance companies don’t typically pay for this stuff. They don’t see it as a necessity.” maybe it is because I’m a parent, but this was devastating. I had a hard time even thinking strait after this check out for a while. I was so angry, so frustrated, and feeling so helpless, and I was only tangentially involved.
I made up my mind to do something much more than just make a easy controller for [Thomas], I needed to help as numerous people as possible. much more on that later.
[Thomas’] controller.
As you saw in the video, [Thomas] loves to play minecraft. I met with him and talked about what he needed in terms of a controller. At this point in time, [Thomas] doesn’t really need much. He can use an Xbox gamepad, a sixaxis controller, and keyboard and mouse. He has a little bit of trouble holding the triggers for much more than a couple seconds, but he gets by.
This implied that I really didn’t have a particular problem to resolve so I just tried to build something that would help the most people possible. I jumped from idea to idea, but ultimately fell onto the idea of modular buttons that could be reconfigured as needed.
lap board configuration
teensy
all the bits
I used a Teensy with incredibly easy keyboard/mouse emulation code. This allows me to give the imputs to the games without the use of additional software. I ought to point out here, that this isn’t a new or fantastic idea. The very expensive buttons that I discussed early plug best into something called a “switch box” that emulates mouse and keyboard. typically the switchboxes even have a ton of features that mine does not have.
teensy
all the bits
lap board configuration
All mine does is emulates W,A,S,D, space, escape, E, Q, mouse movement, and best and left mouse clicks. Det er det. That is all that was needed for minecraft. I initially started making a system that used headphone jacks, like what I saw on the other systems but then had a better thought. By leaving the headers available, people could literally plug two wires into it and emulate a keyboard press. need a button that takes very little pressure to activate(very common)? how about no pressure.
Since Thomas can still use a keyboard and mouse, my controller doesn’t help him much. He was a good sport about it, and we’re keeping communication open for the future, because unfortunately, he won’t be able to use the keyboard and mouse forever.
The files
I’m not an engineer. I just looked at what was out there and started doing very quick 3d printed cases. They’re not incredibly well thought out, but they work. fortunately Lulzbot gave me a 3d printer for this project so I was able to prototype and test very quickly. Please download these and improve them.
Here are the parts.
1. low pressure lever activated brief switch.
Using a dirt low-cost 6mm brief switch, this case uses a lever for activation decreasing the amount of pressure required to roughly 15 grams. It works like the one imaGined ovenfor, og jeg tror selv om jeg inkluderer arbeid i ligningen, ville det være mindre enn $ 30. Det er flere variasjoner hovedsakelig fordi jeg ikke hadde en god hengselidee.
Last ned lavtrykksbryteren her.
2. D-PAD og QUAD-knappen
Dette er ganske enkelt en sak for 4 6mm korte brytere. Disse har ingen spak, og krever omtrent 60 gram trykk for å presse, som er omtrent det samme som en Xbox-kontroller. De er ikke perfekte, men de jobber.
Noen diskuterte at de trodde at D-Pad trengte mye flere knapper for å være som Xbox One. Hvis du demonterer en Xbox-kontroller, ser du at det bare er 4 knapper der inne. Det er ikke et 8-veis system.
Du kan også se kontrollerformet blokk jeg skrev ut for å holde disse.
Last ned D-PAD-filen her.
Last ned quad-knappen filen her.
På en side notat, bruk fleksibel strenget ledning. Jeg aner ikke hva jeg tenkte med å bruke solide kjernebånd her. De vil ikke vare lenge.
Det er noen få flere filer som du kan laste ned som kom fra dette prosjektet:
The PSP Thumbstick Case
Single-knappen kabinettet (ubrukt i den endelige versjonen)
Den blanke kontrolleren formen for å stikke ting til.
Hvordan kan du hjelpe?
Som jeg sa. Jeg kunne ikke bare gå bort. Jeg gikk fra å tenke jeg ville gjøre [Thomas] en ting, å tenke jeg ville gjøre noe som ville være ideelt for alle! Jeg vurderte selv å gjøre en slags kickstarter eller noe for å gjøre et godt lite selskap for meg selv. Ingen av disse ideene følte seg best skjønt.
Jeg skjønte at jeg ikke trenger å være den som hjelper alle ved å lage en kontroller. Mens jeg gjorde noe for [Thomas], gjør min ferdighet ikke nødvendigvis ting. Min ferdighet deler informasjon, forbinder folk og bygningsfellesskap.
Jeg har opprettet TheControllerproject.com. Dette er et forum hvor folk kan tilby sine tjenester til å bygge tilpassede grensesnitt. Du trenger ikke å frivillig din tid gratis. Selv med arbeidskraft kan noen av disse enkle grensesnittene gjøres billigere hjemme enn de kommersielle versjonene. numerous people need customizations that aren’t even available commercially.
Many of you are thinking “oh, the engineers will take care of this stuff”. slutt med det. YOU CAN help TOO.
I will personally put up easy to follow directions on how you can make some easy devices for people even if you’ve never soldered or touched a microcontroller. If you want to help, you can. Please do. Jeg ber.
What if you don’t want to work, you just want to donate?
Fine, that’s good, but don’t donate to me. go to Ablegamers.com and donate to the Able gamers Foundation. They are striving for the same goals as me and have their act together. They are already helping people all over the place and could use your contribution better than I could. check out this video below about the Able gamers Foundation.