After getting addicted to DiRT for the Xbox 360, I started making a top-down, rally game in flash. Assuming I have the time, I’d like have a ton of tracks and cars as well as online racing/tournaments. It is very unpolished at this point and only has 1 track and 1 car… but here it is after a few hours.
You may have noticed that it has been a while since my last post. For the last few months I have been putting the finishing touches on a social networking script I wrote. If you are into reading and writing poetry and stories, making friends online, having a public journal, and getting achievements (awesome) for doing it, check out the new members section at Lovingyou.com. If you are not into any of that, you can check out my profile at any rate.
I added an Atari/Amiga/Commodore joystick port to my Xbox 360 X-Arcade stick today… Why you ask? Sensible World of Soccer of course! Although I never played the older versions, I have become very addicted to the recent Xbox Live Arcade release. The guys at sensiblesoccer.de seem to prefer an Amiga joystick over any other type of control method so I decided I would give it a shot. Since the Xbox 360 controller can be used on the PC, I figured this project would also be good for emulation.
The gamepad I used is a wired Xbox 360 MicroCon Game Pad Pro. I had to use a relay (TF2E-4.5v-1-H50 ATF20620) on the left and right buttons because they don’t share a common ground. If you decide to do this and just want a joystick port on the controller and not the X-Arcade stick, you should use an opto-isolator instead of a relay as they are smaller.
| 1 | UP |
| 2 | DOWN |
| 3 | LEFT |
| 4 | RIGHT |
| 6 | BUTTON |
| 8 | GND |
On my controller, pins 3 and 4 go to the following relays which connect to the left and right d-pad buttons. Other controllers may be set up differently. Any button that does not share a common ground needs a relay or an opto-isolator.
I recently bought a broken Guitar Hero X-Plorer guitar on Ebay for $23 hoping to be able to fix it. After plugging it in, the Xbox wouldn’t turn on. This scared me a great deal to say the least. I looked at the power supply and the light was red instead of the usual orange. It had detected a fault and was protecting the console.
Knowing it was a problem with the power, I narrowed the problem down to two things. Either the USB cable was broken internally or the previous owner spilled liquid on the controller. Lucky for me it was the USB cable, an extremely simple fix. The +5 (red) wire was broken right were it starts to come out of the guitar, most likely due to the previous owner wrapping the cable around the controller.
If your X-Plorer controller isn’t working there is a good chance this is the problem. If you want to be sure, test each end of the USB cable with a multimeter. If this is the problem, all you have to do is cut the bad part of the USB cable out and reconnect the two good parts. The bad part will most likely be the thick rubber part coming out of the guitar.
To connect the two good pieces of the cable back together, twist the wires together, solder them, then use heat shrink tubing to cover the exposed part of the wire (you can also use electrical tape, but heat shrink tubing would be best). You also need to twist the outer part of the two good pieces together and solder them. Use electrical tape to cover anything that is exposed (should only be the outer part of the cable at this point). When finished, use zip-ties to make sure the electrical tape stays put and to keep the wire from moving around.
Here is the first CamShots update. For those who don’t know CamShots is an application that allows you to capture screenshots from a video capturing device in intervals from 1-60 seconds. It is based on the InterVideo Home Theater software. For more information, see Home Security System For Under $50 - Part 2
New Features:
Keep in mind you need the InterVideo Home Theater software (came free with my video capturing device) as well as the .NET framework for this to work.
Download CamShots - (freeware)
I hope to use something other than InterVideo for future updates.
I put an Xbox 360 controller board in my X-Arcade Solo stick a while back to have a proper arcade stick for Xbox Live Arcade games and fighting games. The Xbox 360 controller I have has a turbo button on it but I have been thinking about adding a faster one.
If you are interested in adding the turbo button to anything, here is the parts list (all of this can be found at Radio Shack) and the schematics:
If you attempt this, make sure you get multiple resistors between 10k Ohms and 100k Ohms (or a variable reistor) in order to find the best pulse rate for your turbo button. I used a 22k Ohm resistor, which is about 30 button presses a second. You don’t want it to be so fast that it just registers as one long button press and you don’t want it too slow.
Note: If you are interested in converting your X-Arcade stick into an Xbox 360 stick, I used an Xbox 360 MicroCon Game Pad Pro [Gameshark or Madcatz] and 30 gauge wire. The hardest part of this mod is mounting it to the board. I used two big screws going through some tubes to keep the board raised above the buttons (See pics above). This thing is a must have for any old school gamers and arcade junkies. Some games just don’t feel right on a gamepad.
I wrote a simple program called CamShots to capture images with a video capturing device. The application is very simple. As of now it just creates a folder on the desktop and starts adding snapshots. You can change the snapshot interval from 1-50 seconds and pause it. Pretty basic stuff. I’ll be updating this in the near future and will post any updates.
CamShots will work with most video capture devices. You will need the InterVideo Home Theater software as well as the .NET framework version 1.1 or higher for it to work.
See ‘CamShots Update’ for new link.
On a side note, you can use this software to capture multiple screenshots of movies, console games, tv, etc. I captured some video game screenshots to test it and made some animated .gif files with them. Here are some examples…
Being sick of people trying to steal my car, I decided to take more drastic measures. I purchased a nanny cam on Ebay for $33 and set it up in a room over the garage to look down at my car. This thing produces a picture that is much better quality than I expected. It is in color and also has audio (which I don’t need). The only bad thing about it is that it needs a lot of light to get an image but that was to be expected.
You can connect the receiver directly to your TV, VCR, DVDR, DVR, or PC if you have a video capturing device. I will be hooking it up to the PC and writing a program for the Game Bridge, a USB video capturing device for Windows. I picked this up for $10 a few months ago, I have seen them as low as $3. I bought one just to play PS2 games on my laptop but the video stutters to much to use for gaming (maybe why they are so cheap?). It is great for snapshots though. More details coming in my next post…
If your Xbox is not turning on at all, your power supply is most likely the problem. If you have a version 1.0-1.1 Xbox, you have a good chance of repairing it. If you have a version 1.2-1.6 Xbox, all you can do is check the fuse on the power supply. If the fuse is fine, you will have to buy a new power supply. A new power supply ranges from $20-$40 on eBay. If you don’t know what version your Xbox is, click here to find out.
V1.0-1.1 Instructions:
This is a fairly easy repair and anyone can do it.
About six months ago, the HDMI port on my Samsung LCD stopped working. I noticed that it was missing the screws that keep the HDMI port secure when plugging or unplugging a cable. Since it was out of warranty and the cost to repair it was insane, I ripped it apart hoping I could fix it. I was amazed at what I found: the whole HDMI connector was disconnected from the board!
If you are good with a soldering iron, you can reconnect it, but if there is any doubt you should probably take it to a professional. If you decide to do it yourself, make sure you use low heat and a lot of flux.
After resoldering it and making sure it was screwed in properly, it worked perfectly. Hopefully this will help somebody save some money.
