USB paddle game controller

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

These are USB paddle game controllers for old games, akin to the Atari 2600 paddles.
You will need to print the top and bottom segments, the knob, and the converter box. The converter box can handle two paddles.
The controller works with the DICE emulator's pong if you set the controls correctly.
The knob is tweaked from here.
To build, you will need:
blue pill stm32f103c8t6 board
rotary pot (per paddle; I used 400K)
12mm wide tactile switch with cap (per paddle)
My firmware uses Roger's libmaple Arduino core and my USB Composite library. For installation and bootloader instructions, see here. You should also get the latest version of my USB Composite library instead of using the older version that's bundled with the core.
The Blue Pill goes in the converter box. Four wires run from that to each paddle.
Wire paddles as follows (with pot upside down and pins pointing upward)
Blue Pill Ground to pot right
Blue Pill 3.3V to pot left and to one pin on switch
PA1 (paddle 1) or PA3 (paddle 2) to pot middle
PA2 (paddle 1) or PA4 (paddle 2) to other pin on switch.
The firmware has three operation modes:
Single joystick (default): X axis = paddle 1, Y axis = paddle 2, button 1 = paddle 1 button, button 2 = paddle 2 button. To force this mode, hold paddle 1 button down for five seconds while plugging into USB port.
Dual joystick: joystick 1 (both X and Y axes and button) = paddle 1, joystick 2 = paddle 2. To force mode, hold both paddle buttons down while plugging.
Mouse: X = paddle 1, Y = paddle 2, left click = paddle 1 button, right click = paddle 2 button. To force mode, hold right paddle button down while plugging.
If you force a mode, it will be saved to flash for next time.
The OpenSCAD files use and bundle my Bezier and tube mesh libraries.