PSP- Why a crappy joystick?; Why not a track ball?

[WarHammer]

I am a psp user with no modding experiance yet I would really like to see a trackball on the psp rather than the joystick that comes as standard. I would like to be able to play fps like say doom with some accuracy, or perhaps some rts like red alert.

What I would like to do is discuss:
1. the possibility of this project coming to be
2. the dificulty of it and highlighting the issues
3. and how to go about starting this endevour

I do have an idea of sorts; thought if I bought a track ball device (smallest possible), open it up and some how attach it to the circuitary the joy stick is currently joined to. Would that work I wonder or will there be need for some programming?

Any suggestions/ideas welcome. (It would be cool to have a trackball, what do u think?) Peace

[MARIOPARTY53]

you can do it, But, Nobody here is going to, That sound terrible to alot of us, Good luck though

[andy1337]

you can do it, But, Nobody here is going to, That sound terrible to alot of us, Good luck though

I Would attempt it at least

[ProperBritish]

Itd work exactly like PSP Mouse, good luck getting it done internally

[ryan0]

Itd work exactly like PSP Mouse, good luck getting it done internally

I also doubt you will be able to make it internal,as track balls use photoresistance,meaning ur gunn have to fit the gear mechanism AND the electronics AND the ball into the small space,good luck dude,I'm not trying to piss in your corn flakes and this aint impossible,but it's certainly going to be hard

[WarHammer]

you can do it, But, Nobody here is going to, That sound terrible to alot of us, Good luck though

Thanks guys for the resposne. Oh and is the psp mouse thing done and working? If it is, it is encouraging; it means that such an interface is possible.

Regarding the quote above, it's all good but perhaps u could find some time and tell me as to why it sounds terrible, that would at at least be constructive. It's called constructive critisism 

[ProperBritish]

I also doubt you will be able to make it internal,as track balls use photoresistance,meaning ur gunn have to fit the gear mechanism AND the electronics AND the ball into the small space,good luck dude,I'm not trying to piss in your corn flakes and this aint impossible,but it's certainly going to be hard

lol sorry i forgot to put sarcasm marks on my post :P

[ryan0]

i actually think it would sound sweet,but gaming with it will suck really rally bad,it works exactly like the psp mouse.The psp mouse was mainly for web browsing,here's how it would work/not work:

With the mouse mod,you scroll the mouse forward,which makes the cursor go up (in the psp web browser)
When you stop scrolling the mouse up/run out of room you have to bring the mouse back toward you and scroll it up again if you want to go any further.
With a track ball it would be the same.
When you play a game with it you will have to keep on scrolling in the direction you wish to go,lifting up your thumb,bringing it back,and scrolling again.You could use a resistor and a capacitor to set up a kind of "slow fade" to help stop this,but there's only a certain point to which that could help

see why it wouldn't work/would be pointless?
I would love if this mod was practical,in fact I'd be the 1st person doing it.but that's the problem,it isn't
ryan0

[Jumbo]

The PSP Analog is perfect...

And ya gaming with the track ball will be really annoying and just over all use would be annoying. Cool idea but I don't think its worth the time.

[WarHammer]

i actually think it would sound sweet,but gaming with it will suck really rally bad,it works exactly like the psp mouse.The psp mouse was mainly for web browsing,here's how it would work/not work:

With the mouse mod,you scroll the mouse forward,which makes the cursor go up (in the psp web browser)
When you stop scrolling the mouse up/run out of room you have to bring the mouse back toward you and scroll it up again if you want to go any further.
With a track ball it would be the same.
When you play a game with it you will have to keep on scrolling in the direction you wish to go,lifting up your thumb,bringing it back,and scrolling again.You could use a resistor and a capacitor to set up a kind of "slow fade" to help stop this,but there's only a certain point to which that could help

see why it wouldn't work/would be pointless?
I would love if this mod was practical,in fact I'd be the 1st person doing it.but that's the problem,it isn't
ryan0

I am glad I have some 1 who sees eye to eye on this. It would be cool. At this moment Sony PSP have tapped into 2 major genres out of the four that exist. Meaning they r loosing out. Two existing 1s:
The 2d platform game & Racing; but they r missing out on First person shooters and Real time strategy fans.

Now I will tell u why this would work, simply put, I am under the impression that u can reassign buttons within most games. So here's what I think; u use L1 as the button to carry u forward and the trackball just to look around and aim. And why it would work on stradegy games is if there was an option to increase the sensitivity of the trackball. In other words once or if this project succeeds it's all upto the software makers, i.e. homebrew community and such.

If u still think it's a waste of time and can back it up with reason please do, I don't want to waste time as much as any of u. But I agree it would be cool if it worked.

[ryan0]

sorry dude but in no situation would this work because of the problem I highlighted above,you have to keep scrolling the ball forward to go in a certain direction/hold a certain button,once you stop for a split second,you've let go of the button,once we have mastered controllers through the serial/headphone port I will certainly give this a try,but there is no point in actually hardwiring it in because it loses too much functionality and wouldn't fit

[WarHammer]

sorry dude but in no situation would this work because of the problem I highlighted above,you have to keep scrolling the ball forward to go in a certain direction/hold a certain button,once you stop for a split second,you've let go of the button,once we have mastered controllers through the serial/headphone port I will certainly give this a try,but there is no point in actually hardwiring it in because it loses too much functionality and wouldn't fit

You sound more experienced, as in I have none and since I see u share the same passion as my self, I'm goin to take ur advise and not do this mod, until I learn more about electronics. Thanks alot, I really apreciated the time taken to respond.   

[ryan0]

no probs dude,if you ever have any other questions or need help don' hesitate to pm me or add me on msn

[PspKicks316]

If I had a psp I could try to make the Sidekick 3 trackball thing work on it, but I don't have one anymore.

[kink192]

yeah, wouldnt the sidekick trackball work well, i mean it is really compact. i think it would be a pretty kool idea. hell if this goes anywhere i might do it when i get my new psp. dual ball it.

[ryan0]

I have this mod figured out so if you need help just pm me or msn me,just remember the problem that I highlighted above,gaming will be crap with it but internet browsing will be uber sweet,I would personally recommend a trackball for the x/\O[] buttons which I am yet to figure out

[anthonyta]

wait dude.. do you mean a trackball that works like they have on blackberry phones? wouldn't that mean you have to keep scrolling like crazy to move it a direction? if not then scratch all that. it would basically be a nub but with a ball then right? useless. haha good luck though

[ryan0]

wait dude.. do you mean a trackball that works like they have on blackberry phones? wouldn't that mean you have to keep scrolling like crazy to move it a direction? if not then scratch all that. it would basically be a nub but with a ball then right? useless. haha good luck though

read my 1st reply

[SN!P3R]

if i were to attempt this, id try and use like the trackball from a blackberry pearl. it cant be that hard. you would need some machining for the faceplate to be able to touch the TB.

[Jumbo]

if i were to attempt this, id try and use like the trackball from a blackberry pearl. it cant me that hard. you would need some machining for the faceplate to be able to touch the TB. but, its possible

Don't bump old topics, and if its not that hard i wanna see you do it.

Don't say stuff that you cant back up.

[Alien_X]

Don't bump old topics, and if its not that hard i wanna see you do it.

Don't say stuff that you cant back up.

Yeah, probably doesn't know the first thing about how the trackball, or the analog stick works.

Let me Test you then: Everyone else be quiet, this if for the PSP Hacker of acidmods..

The analog stick is a type of digital switch, Correct?
Much like those DIP Switches you probably didn't use to mod your psp, correct?
So when you push it up, it flicks one of the switches on, and presses a button, correct?
Now a trackball is a bit like a tiltsensor, inside the Magical ball, is a gyrometer, when it is tilted a certain direction it outputs a string of data to the device it is controlling, correct?
So now it is easy to interface them together, correct?


And, Yes, to everyone else that doesn't understand this, I know all of the facts in those questions couldn't be more wrong.

[SN!P3R]

alright before everyone goes off like that, i SAID if i WERE TO TRY. not really intrested it doing it, and i really dont care for a trackball, and the maechanism never sparked my intrest. so quit being arses

[rawbz]

I also doubt you will be able to make it internal,as track balls use photoresistance,meaning ur gunn have to fit the gear mechanism AND the electronics AND the ball into the small space,good luck dude,I'm not trying to piss in your corn flakes and this aint impossible,but it's certainly going to be hard

Get your hands on a Blackberry wheel or hack up an old ipod....where there is a whacked out nut job there is a way

[gameguru]

I Would attempt it at least

it would be completely retarded to do something like that other then to have one for the main screen for media, internet etc.... problem with it is that you wouldn't be able to hold the ball in all direction to move person and you would have to scroll same for other side and that would be completely pointless

[wickedjester061590]

if you have the time and a broken phone like the blackberry or sidekick im sure theres a way to pull the ball out of them and maybe a way to set it up in a psp or atleast like an add on idk i have a broken blackberry ill check and get back to ya.

[Tylers Last Stand]

ok wait.... i know im a noob and don't really know much....

but if the trackball with all of its components were to be a replacement for the analog, couldn't it be wired with analog-like switches so that the ball acts like an analog, but scrolls when holding down, say, [], or L?

[Jumbo]

For all of you this has been done....