{"id":138,"date":"2012-12-04T00:07:36","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T08:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/?p=138"},"modified":"2025-03-18T14:26:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T22:26:19","slug":"case-and-controller-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/2012\/12\/04\/case-and-controller-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Case and Controller Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caleb has started playing Excitebike<\/a>!\u00a0 That, and I had a week off from from work so I started working on things again.<\/p>\n

First, the case.\u00a0 I had previously thought that the motherboard was not going to fit without removing the RESET button from the front of the NES.\u00a0 I thought it was off by about 1\/8 inch or so, because the top just barely wouldn’t close, and looking inside I saw the processor fan right up at the top so I figured it wouldn’t work.\u00a0 While trying to calculate how low I needed to go, I discovered that there is indeed room, and it was actually a piece of the inside of the top that was bumping up against the DVI connector on the back of the motherboard.\u00a0 I removed that piece on the inside, and it just barely closed!\u00a0 So I get to keep the RESET button.\u00a0 Everything now just barely fits.<\/p>\n

One thing I had not foreseen that I also just discovered, is I can’t mount the motherboard where I wanted it at the far side.\u00a0 This is because the mounting standoffs would be going through the existing rubber feet on the bottom of the NES.\u00a0 I’ll have to move it over a little bit, and that cramps all the room allocated for the fans, power supply, and cords.\u00a0 After a lot of mucking around with this ‘puzzle,’ I believe I finally found a way to stuff everything in there and route the cords.<\/p>\n

Now about the controllers: previously I thought I would have to use different solutions for every type of controller, as one chip in all controllers meant I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.\u00a0 Well, when I was searching for a very simple single USB button to connect the RESET button to, I came across a microprocessor that I think will solve all my troubles: The Teensy 2.0<\/a>.\u00a0 At $16, it is only $1 more than I paid for the JoyWarrior (today the JoyWarrior is $4 less).\u00a0 But the JoyWarrior also required a few extra components, and tested my patience soldering everything together in such a small space.<\/p>\n

The Teensy is a C programmable microprocessor that comes with libraries and sample code to fully support USB.\u00a0 On top of that, it’s extremely easy to load firmware on and use. The JoyWarrior required no programming, but fortunately, coding is something I’m good at.\u00a0 Using their examples, I can easily create my own “gamepad” base program.\u00a0 Then, from the base program, I simply have to add whatever buttons I need, and can even add analog sticks, analog triggers, etc.\u00a0 The best part is, I can name how the gamepads show up in Windows, for example, “CES NES-pad,” “CES SNES-pad,” CES Genesis-pad,” etc.\u00a0 With names like these, I can pop up a message when an SNES game is started saying to plug the controller in if no compatible controllers are already in.\u00a0 I can also map every button just how I want it. This way there will be no need to re-configure buttons on the NES emulator for an SNES gamepad, because SNES Y and B will be the same Windows buttons as NES B and A, respectively.<\/p>\n

The other great thing about Teensy is it requires no other components, and the button inputs can be configured to use pull-up resistors.\u00a0 I had to scratch all the pull-up resistors off from the NES gamepad for use with the JoyWarrior.\u00a0 With the Teensy, all I have to do is connect one wire from power, ground, and each button hole on the NES board to a much easier to solder hole on the Teensy (my biggest headache with the JoyWarrior was trying to solder the wires to its pins).<\/p>\n

Another Teensy will also live inside the case and connect to the RESET button.\u00a0 This one I will probably program to show up in Windows as a keyboard, and when the button is pressed it will send something like Ctrl-Alt-Shift-X, which my menu software will use to close the current full-screen emulator and return to the games menu.<\/p>\n

My Teensy is on its way in the mail – I’m looking forward to playing with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caleb has started playing Excitebike!\u00a0 That, and I had a week off from from work so I started working on things again. First, the case.\u00a0 I had previously thought that the motherboard was not going to fit without removing the RESET button from the front of the NES.\u00a0 I thought it was off by about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertbyam.com\/ces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}