Xbox 360 Trackball Controller

[SDRiding]

I've seen 2 separate posts concerning this, looks like the original attempt died out. Ryan0 and a few others seemed to have a few good ideas! I'm willing to tackle this project! I'm familiar with electronics and programming. If anyone is willing to help me get this done I'd be more than glad to send them a modded controller as well. I have 3 wireless controllers, haven't picked up any trackballs or PICs yet. Wanted to get some input before I started scooping up materials.

From my understanding because of the differences in the joystick and trackball input, I would have to program a PIC to translate the trackballs input to a meaningful signal for the controller so that it would register properly in the game. I don't have school again until January, so I've got time and money to get this hammered out. My main use is going to be for the PC, but it would be nice if it could work for the XBox as well.

Let me know if anyone wants to help me do this!

[dedafmonteur]

well i can maybe help. but do you mean a trackball from like a mouse?
ifso, evry step you want to make you got to move the trackball forward...

[Amerikun Soljia]

Would that work well for shooters? I would think a trackball would come in handy for RTS's like Halo Wars or Starcraft 2??

[dedafmonteur]

well idk if you donr have to keep puhing it forwards or any other way than it would be great.

[SDRiding]

Sorry I didn't clarify, I would be replacing the right analog stick ONLY. Here is the original thread: https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=23178.0

So it would be fantastic for shooters since your aiming will be much more fluid. I play MMOs and FPSs, and I can see this as a huge benefit.

[dedafmonteur]

that changes the prospective, sure im in!

[SDRiding]

The real problem I see is that most games are designed to input it as a joystick. So it's reading in the speed from the joystick and the time it's held versus a mouse/trackball input which simply tells you how far it's moved. You could convert the distance moved into speed + time on the joystick, but wouldn't it be like having your mouse accelerated in Windows? I'm not a fan of mouse acceleration, but it could work.

Any ideas on how to accomplish this part of it? It would be easy enough with a PIC that is DAC compatible.
Post Merge: October 28, 2009, 09:50:58 PMSo the project seems fairly straight forward actually. Most optical mice all use the same guts and are easily read by a PIC. Going to try this mouse here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826146007. They're apparently used heavily in robotics, so I found a number of sites on how to access the outputs and how to interpret them.

Any recommendations on a particular PIC that I should use?

[SDRiding]

Alright, I think I have it figured out. Now it's time to get the parts. Apparently all the controllers I have are Matrix style. Where can I buy a couple cheap CG controllers? I've looked on EBay and there's no real way to differentiate on there.

Also on the XBox 360 can you calibrate the analog joysticks? It doesn't appear there is an easy way to do it. For the trackball to work on the 360 you'd have to essentially remove the deadzone and bump up sensitivity. Easy to do on the PC, but the 360 I'm not so sure.