You know, you could just use RPGM2 or RPGM3.

Holy crap, why didn't I think of that?! Now to scrap all 6 years of my work and start clean over! What a wonderful idea!

Those are third-party controllers - I'd have to map the traces on those for each individual model, which is time consuming, so I wouldn't use those if I could help it. But the turbo buttons are toggled, anyway, so even if I made a Kupid out of one of them it shouldn't pose a problem as long as the user had the turbo turned off.

Really, the main thing making the third-party controllers less desirable is that I would have to map the traces - whereas for the official Sony controllers, I already have the the PCB map. There are also size and space considerations to take into account. And the electrical/circuit characteristics of the third-party controllers may be different enough from the official controllers that my signal timings and sequences would have to be completely re-worked for each model of controller. Which would effectively mean reengineering the Kupid for each model.

I got quite a few official controllers, so I'm not worried about running out of them any time soon. I don't need to concern myself with the third-party ones until after I'm done with the prototype and start getting production models built.

I would say don't even bother with unofficial controllers. No one needs a turbo function for RPG Maker. Unless it let you make the game at turbo speed.

I just got that keyboard in that I ordered. It's pretty nice for it being of the older format... though it's really quiet, and I can't really hear much when I'm typing. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Boy, somebody's confident about Kupid.

Try being successful at anything if you don't believe in yourself - actually, if you didn't, odds are you wouldn't even try in the first place.

Confidence, coupled with temperance & wisdom, begets success.

The Maxims of Ptahhotep may be more than 4,000 years old, but are just as relevant today as they were then - and I try to follow them in my life (especially the part about not lusting after women ).

Actually, I think he ment the fact that I went out and bought a keyboard for it before you even had a single one complete and gave the word that these are good to go. But I also stated that I'd have a use for it outside of Kupid, so I may be very wrong... it happens more often than I'd like.

Either way, doesn't matter. It's not as if I need an excuse to flaunt my love of Ancient Egypt.

If I could sell 25, I'd be happy. That would get back all the money I've spent on the project so far, as well as net me a small profit.

But let's wait until the prototype is complete before we entertain notions of bulk orders.

And it's not as if I'm going anywhere. Well, as far as I know right now. My extensive blood tests are going to be taken today in a couple hours - it will be a bit before I get the results back.

Provided I'm not dying, my stock of controllers should keep the community supplied with Kupids for quite some time.

As far as immediate orders go - I have enough supplies to make 5 Kupids (counting the prototype). Which means that I will have 4 available for immediate sale (after the PT is complete), as I will be keeping the PT for myself.

Maybe I could also sell DIY kits? I wonder if anyone would be interested in that. Though, it would only be about $5-10 cheaper. But some people like to do things like this themselves.

General progress:

Let's see - I still need to get some 18-pin DIP sockets. I thought I had a few lying around, though; I'll have to check. Those darlington arrays I incorporated into the design last week worked out great - I'll need to get more of those too.

And I will need to get a 5V step-up board to power the keyboard as well. The PS2 controller has a 7V power pin, but the PS1 only has 3.3V - which isn't enough to power the keyboard.

I got a couple Propeller chips - there's good news and bad news with that. The bad news is that it's a forty-pin DIP, and thus is way too big to fit inside a PS1 controller. The good news is that I don't need to use the Prop. But I'll probably still do some experiments with it.

Hey, Lantis - what's the power draw on that keyboard you bought? It should be stamped on the back. How many milliamps?

A DIY kit might actually be pretty useful, but seeing as none of us are soldering experts, it would be limited.

60 milliamps... and runs on 5 volts.

I've got a Logitech USB keyboard that's 5V and 100 mA.

Needs to be PS/2 keyboard, not USB.

Yeah - and actually soldering to the PS1 pcb is pretty tough, especially since you have to scrape away the green coating on individual traces. Odds are the person would end up ruining the controller long before they even got a chance to start soldering. I have to wear a monocle to see well enough to do that.

Okay - that's good. Anything over 100mA would be too much, unless I modify my design.


Yeah - one of the reasons I'm not using USB, even though it's more common these days, is that USB keyboard use too much current.

EDIT: I just ordered the necessary step-up board for the keyboard power supply. I should get it in a few days, so I can test it out.

I also got myself a new monocle, new tweezers, some exacto knifes, and those DIP sockets. I rather like that this project gives me an excuse to buy new tools and electronics supplies. ^_^

Question:

What does the step-up board for the keyboard do? Does it regulate the power flow like a transformer or something?

It takes the 3.3V current and steps it up to 5V, which the keyboard requires.

The PS2 controller has a 7V source, but the PS1 only has 3.3V - so, with the PS2, I would only need a cheap 5V regulator. But since the PS1 uses 3.3V, I need to use a more expensive 5V step-up board.

*uses phoenix down on thread*

I refuse to let this topic die.

>_<

I've got a couple term papers to write, and three books to read before I get started.

I'm still working on Kupid, I'm just a bit swamped with stuff right now.