Finding themselves in need of a thermometer that could communicate with the computer, The Cheap Vegetable Gardener resorted to a bit of hacking. They created this PS2 controller thermometer by attaching some thermistors to the analog stick inputs. Each PS2 controller could collect data from up to four thermistors. There is an auto shutoff feature built into the controller that shuts off the analog signal after a period of non use. To overcome this, they simply taped the L2 button down.
[thanks Shawn]
Oh that is clever!
Sure, just replace one resistance-changing device for another and harvest the output! Why not?
maybe not the most direct or efficient way to do things, but it utilizes existing stuff effectively in a way not thought of, at least by me.
Good O!
You could take this to a whole different level and try to play video games with flamethrowers.
Ohh. A true and worthy hack. That’s slick. My question is how far can the sensors be away?
Taping the L2 button down, I love it. Truly hacky.
hal, obviously the longer the distance the more the resistance which would have to be calibrated with the know limit of the controller being a value of 65534 (unit16 max) and given at three feet 100 degrees it returns a reading of around 40K there is some range before it looses its upper limits.
At neutral position it returns a value of 32767 so if you removed the potentiometer (or if you went the more hacky method and taped it the bottom left position) you should be able to get yourself a little more room. Given some decent soldering and wire you should be able to get a good 50-100 feet though would definitely recommend the shorter the better.
good use of a controller. You get 6(?) analog inputs, 8 or 10 digital inputs… makes me wonder why someone hasnt made a simple emulated controller pcb. I guess controllers are cheap enough to just strip them down instead.
only draw back is very little output options. sure you can get a dout or two.. but yeah.. sigh. A few analog outs and an 8 bit dout and controllers would be the defacto standard for diy pc interfaces.
solenoidclock:
lighters and cans of compressed air.
OR, if you are totally hardcore, breath power.
Love your weblog. I have bookmarked it!
Nice hack!
But PS2 controllers actually have 12 analog inputs (L. X & Y, R. X & Y, four face buttons, and four triggers) and four digital (sel, start, L3, R3). I’m not sure if the analog button inputs are that linear/accurate/precise/etc. but they return an 8-bit value (BTW, I’m pretty sure the stick axes are 8-bit, too).
The only hitch to using the buttons is the USB adapter mentioned in the article. Those usually digitize the buttons since windows doesn’t support them. However, if you went with an XBox pad, which is basically the same but natively USB, a custom driver (Google “redcl0ud” or “libusb win32”) could retrieve any/all analog inputs.
Hmmm, playing video games with flametrowers….
(2nd post.)
Let’s see:
An array of alcohol burning flames would be almost invisible.
And they could be given all kind of nice bright colors with adding the right (metal?) salts, just like in fireworks.
RGB are all available…
Sounds just like another useless fun project for Burning Man….
On second thought…
Might be a bit dangerous…
I just keep wondering what the display will do to my hair if I lose a game.
Better put up some sunglasses.