Projets:Perso:2012:StickArcade

Stick Arcade 2 Players (For Mame)
Auteur	Jnat
Date de proposition	20/02/2012
Tags du projet	Arcade;mame;usbhid;arduino;shift register;
Lieu d'utilisation final	@Work/Home
Utilisateur final	Gamers!
Type de projet Projet personnel de Jnat

Projet Stick Arcade 2 Players (For Mame)

Stick Arcade USB for 2 players 2 sticks + 8 buttons for each player (30+ buttons total) USBHID / Arduino / Woodworking

Overview

This project is about making a working, robust but "cheap" arcade stick. The stick is to be plugged in USB to a computer in order to play Mame arcade emulator or other games.

This project is made of 3 parts:

Input multiplexing modules : making it possible for a simple arduino or Atmega chip to hold 30+ almost simultaneous inputs from players
USB HID Module : The device will create 2 gamepad HID and a keyboard HID on host computer
Stick body : mainly wood/metalworking in order to get a sturdy case (the arcade stick has to be strong and durable)

Input Multiplexing

Since I am using an Arduino diecimila, there is not enough I/o pins to manage 30 input buttons. So multiplexing is needed to make it all fit in.

The multiplexing part is designed to be modular.

Each board is based on a 74hc165N PISO shift register.
Pull up resistors are made with a 8* 9Kohm resistor array but can be replaced by equivalent (or whatever) simple resistors
These chips can be daisy chained giving a good opportunity to think about scalability.
A module handles 8 inputs and uses 4 wires of the arduino (+ power and ground).

Status : In Progress

The first module has been soldered and tested

Task	Status
Prototype a working module	Done
Make a "real" module	Done
Test daisy chain-ability	Done (proto+clean)
Connect at least 2 "clean" modules	TODO
Improve stability when modules are chained	TODO
Module is compact and routing is elegant	TODO