Modding 2 PS2 controllers
I found this adaptor on Ebay which connects 2 x Playstation 2 controllers to one USB port. Apart from the fact that it can only be used up to Win XP, can anyone else see anything which would prevent me from using all the analogues and buttons on my old PS2 controllers?
I’m counting 28 buttons and 8 analogues, am I right?
I’ve got the same cable myself which I used to use for playing emulators. I want to do the same thing myself, but I could never get any HID-MIDI software working on the mac.
I think it’ll be easier on Windows due to having more software to choose from, but I would advise making sure you can get it working before taking the pads apart and putting them in a more dj friendly box.
Cool. At that price it’s worth buying one to see if it works. I’ve got a computer that’s still running on XP so that’s not a problem. I will see if I can get it work on Vista too, but I’m no software genius.
For that amount of money you could have a serious bit of kit, I’m amazed I’ve not seen a thread on here about it before.
[ame]Amazon.com
There are a few different adapters out there. Personally I think the idea of the N64 controller could be a bit neater, but that’s just my personal take on it all.
If you could get MIDI data out of it, it could be a really cool little project.
sup archie
edit I see you were counting 2 controllers so ya you were right … could be interesting
you could also look into ps3 controllers maybe the analog triggers could be used for inputs, ps3 controllers work with windows execpt win 7 64bit (needs driver mod).
Item arrived today and so far it looks promising. The drivers installed without a problem and both joysticks have shown up in my controller menu.
I’ve been able to get MIDI through Rejoice, but only one joystick at a time at the moment. I’m hoping to resolve this if I get a few hours to look at the software side of things in detail. I’m getting 12 buttons, 4 axis and 4 POV buttons on each controller, so double that and you are looking at a nifty controller through 1 USB port for next to nothing (if you have 2 PS2 unused controllers lying around).
If I do go ahead and strip the controllers down I will try and let people know how I get on, but I’m not sure how to go about it myself just yet.
I opened 1 up a few weeks ago and they are actually really simple.
From what I could tell it would just be a case of cutting the links to the buttons that are already there and wiring in new buttons.
Right, I got the soldering iron out tonight and here’s what I’ve done.
I removed the back cover of the controller and it looks like this.
I then de-soldered the two vibration motors on either side of the controller (red & black cables in photo). These are the most obvious things to take out first as they are quite bulky and will restrict your movement on the inside of the joypad.
In the above picture you can see I’ve removed the two thumb joysticks. You have to remember to de-solder the analogues (3 connections each), the joystick switch and the posts which hold the joystick in position (there are 4 of these posts aligned in a square around the white circles on the pcb). Take care when prizing the joysticks out, make sure you have most of the solder off of all of the connections, if you try and push too hard you could break the pcb ruining your project.
You can also see on the top right of the pcb a connection for the green flexible paths which connect the buttons and the POV switch. This should be relatively easy to pull out. That should leave you with something like this.
I’m just logging this down as I go along. I don’t even know if it’s going to work with 2 controllers, so don’t everyone start busting open their own ones without thinking about it first.
try glovepie, Its a little weird if have not used it but very powerfull. I use that and a midi loopback driver loopbe.
I find Glovepie utterly confusing. I have messed around with it a few times but can’t get any kind of Midi out of it at all. Do you have a link to a tutorial? That might be a big help.
rtfm!
had problems at first, too. very good examples in the readme/manual.
also take a close look to the existing settings-files that come along with the software, very helpful!
ask cheft if you have certain issues, he’s always been helpful on this one!
Why 8 analogues? There is only 2 sticks on each controler? or do you get one analogue input for each axis of the stick?
And could these analogues be turned into pots or would they have to be these joysticky type thingymabobs still?
the joysticks are analogue pot’s
2 on each for up down/left right
Just remembering… A few years ago I took a course at university called “Children With Big Ears” (I’m not kidding 
) For our exam project we took a playstation controller and hooked the pots and buttons up to MAX/MSP via iCube (which is used to translate control voltages to MIDI). We used MAX/MSP to create a audio based game that kids could play with the controller. Very funny project
MAX/MSP and iCube is very expensive and I’m sure this can be done a hell LOT cheaper with relative little efford. But check out iCubes sensors. How about building a bending or stretching thingy that controls an effect in your MIDI software?
[quote="MAX/MSP and iCube is very expensive and I’m sure this can be done a hell LOT cheaper with relative little efford. But check out
iCubes sensors. How about building a bending or stretching thingy that controls an effect in your MIDI software?
[/quote]
wow some of those look like fun… esp the one that detects peoples movement direction and speed… thanks
archie…
wanted to get back to you about glovepie. there is a gui tab that you can use to detect the input button/device then select what to map it to. after you do that a few time you will see in the script.
most of the time its easy like
midi.channel1.ByteControl22 = Joystick1.Button2
left side is the output and right side is the input so it reads kinda backwards this would make joy1 button 2 do midi control 22
or
midi.Control20 = MapRange(Joystick1.x, -1,1, 0,1)
something like that would map the x axis joystick to a midi … I think
however after you look at some sample scripts you will see theres a ton of stuff you can do, i do not have it totally down myself but I know you can do button combos delays, you could even setup a pot so it could have 1/2 of the range as 1 control, 1/2 of it as something else.
Anyone out there really familiar with this program? I could use some help with some ideas.
Bump.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve been able to get the scripts written through the GUI, but any time I run the program I get nothing in Traktor.
I’m finding this very frustrating because I picked up Rejoice relatively easily. Once again I’m finding my hardware skills being limited by my incompetence on the software side. Even looking through some Youtube vids hasn’t helped as they all seem to focus on Wii remotes etc.
Grrrrrr…
Archie are you using a loopback driver to go from glovepie, if your not you would need to run the midi out of your pc then back in, just wanted to make sure you had that step. I use loopbe.
Still looking for someone good with glovepie script. I have lots of ideas like shift feature and stuff that could be done if the software.
Thanks Kaleaf, I didn’t know I needed Loopbe, I thought it would be ok using Midi Yoke. When I get a few minutes I will try this out. Really appreciate you getting back to me on this. Cheers.
Midi Yoke should do it on xp. It has not been updated for along time thats why I switched to loopbe.
just get a program called xpadder,converters it in to keyboard strokes then u just assian the keys in traktor takes about 2 mins and away you go