I have a "kluged-together" controller of a similar nature that I use for my Stingray. After seeing your VGA board with the "Wii Classic/Nunchuck compatible connector", I added a 3rd-party Nunchuk adapter to my controller, which gives me a "ton" of useful options. Could you add one of those to the right edge of the design?
@All, How flexible would you guys like to have this? Easy to re-configure with places to jumper wires like PropBOE or hard configured I/O? (Attached is a quick drop-in layout.. Will add a couple tact switch positions, leds, caps, and resistors.)
The layout shows a pattern for a joystick without the pushbutton. I think that even if you don't use pushbutton joysticks right now it would be good to have the pads there.
Ken, Thanks for the Xmas gift! It was waiting for me when I came home from visiting the family down south. I really enjoyed putting this unit together this xmas morning.
My initial thoughts of the unit are:
1) Generally speaking, soldering is not something i enjoy. I would gladly pay an extra five to ten dollars for the unit to arrive ready to go, sans the soldering - perhaps in a project box with headers for connecting wires to another board. Having said that, It was fairly easily to hack together with even the most basic of soldering skills. You may want to consider marketing this as a "learn to solder kit" or at least very clearly indicate that soldering is required to put this thing together. I don't know about anyone else, but I consider GG to be a source for kits, and Parallax to be a source of ready to use merchandise.
2) The build quality of my unit was top notch. No issues to report there. The pot is extremely smooth throughout the entire range (tested via an ADC0831), and the joystick ranks right up there in quality as well. I might prefer two different leds, perhaps one red and one green, but that is just me.
3) As you mentioned earlier, there is no way to please everyone when it comes to a controller. However, for simple projects, I think you have a found a happy medium here with the features you included.
For my purposes, I will not be mounting this to my PROPBOE, but instead will be using it as a remote controller for a propboe powered stingray. So ill need to find a project box that will fit this and a prop board of some sort. Looks like parallax has me covered there...
4) The Esplora looks like a nice board too, but your joystick kit is a much better value, especially for those who want to incorporate this into existing projects and dont need a built in micron. I think $20 would be a reasonable price, considering that you have to solder it yourself. I think a micro controller neutral name would be most fitting - as you wouldn't want to limit this to only prop/bs3 fans. Something like "the micron-troller kit" would be fitting.
Thanks again for the freebie. Ill post a pic when i decide exactly how to mount this puppy. For now it is just tethered to a ppbd. I have never been disappointed with parallax gear, and the streak continues....
Comments
I have a "kluged-together" controller of a similar nature that I use for my Stingray. After seeing your VGA board with the "Wii Classic/Nunchuck compatible connector", I added a 3rd-party Nunchuk adapter to my controller, which gives me a "ton" of useful options. Could you add one of those to the right edge of the design?
dgately
The layout shows a pattern for a joystick without the pushbutton. I think that even if you don't use pushbutton joysticks right now it would be good to have the pads there.
Ken, Thanks for the Xmas gift! It was waiting for me when I came home from visiting the family down south. I really enjoyed putting this unit together this xmas morning.
My initial thoughts of the unit are:
1) Generally speaking, soldering is not something i enjoy. I would gladly pay an extra five to ten dollars for the unit to arrive ready to go, sans the soldering - perhaps in a project box with headers for connecting wires to another board. Having said that, It was fairly easily to hack together with even the most basic of soldering skills. You may want to consider marketing this as a "learn to solder kit" or at least very clearly indicate that soldering is required to put this thing together. I don't know about anyone else, but I consider GG to be a source for kits, and Parallax to be a source of ready to use merchandise.
2) The build quality of my unit was top notch. No issues to report there. The pot is extremely smooth throughout the entire range (tested via an ADC0831), and the joystick ranks right up there in quality as well. I might prefer two different leds, perhaps one red and one green, but that is just me.
3) As you mentioned earlier, there is no way to please everyone when it comes to a controller. However, for simple projects, I think you have a found a happy medium here with the features you included.
For my purposes, I will not be mounting this to my PROPBOE, but instead will be using it as a remote controller for a propboe powered stingray. So ill need to find a project box that will fit this and a prop board of some sort. Looks like parallax has me covered there...
4) The Esplora looks like a nice board too, but your joystick kit is a much better value, especially for those who want to incorporate this into existing projects and dont need a built in micron. I think $20 would be a reasonable price, considering that you have to solder it yourself. I think a micro controller neutral name would be most fitting - as you wouldn't want to limit this to only prop/bs3 fans. Something like "the micron-troller kit" would be fitting.
Thanks again for the freebie. Ill post a pic when i decide exactly how to mount this puppy. For now it is just tethered to a ppbd. I have never been disappointed with parallax gear, and the streak continues....