Help with project idea (inexperienced)

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Jkanewske12
 
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Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:10 pm

Help with project idea (inexperienced)

Post by Jkanewske12 »

Hey there! This is my first post on the forum. I'm looking to start a (what I would assume) to be a rather simple project; a Bluetooth arcade fight stick controller!

The controller;
- smallish form factor
- at least 6 main arcade buttons
- Joystick
- On/Off switch
- Menu/select button
- Rechargeable
- Compatible with android

After some reading and scratching my head I think if I build a BLE HID keyboard with a Feather nRF52840 and configure the buttons and joystick to it. This Retro pie arcade cabinet tutorial seems to be very well put together and have all the components I need (except the piecade and speaker would be extras) and I would need to get the feather.
So essentially could I build both of these projects in these tutorials and remove the piecade and replace it with the configured Feather nRF52840 to act as a BLE HID keyboard, will this work? Other question, Is there enough input slots for that many buttons (6 click buttons, and 4 directional input from joystick, on/off, menu and select buttons) on the Feather nRF52840 or do I need to get a wing to extend the amount of inputs? Last question, with BLE HID keyboards I know its possible to program what keys are pressed from input. Could I program these keys to be default android gamepad keys so the controller is auto detected by emulators?

Arcade Controller:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2707
controller fully built
controller fully built
2707-09.jpg (78 KiB) Viewed 195 times
controller components
controller components
2707-13.jpg (93.61 KiB) Viewed 195 times
BLE HID Keyboard Buttons with CircuitPython:
https://learn.adafruit.com/ble-hid-keyb ... n/overview
feather HID keyboard
feather HID keyboard
feather_IMG_0392.jpg (182.62 KiB) Viewed 195 times

User avatar
Jkanewske12
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:10 pm

Re: Help with project idea (inexperienced)

Post by Jkanewske12 »

On second thought, and more research, it seems like a metro 328 with a bluefruit shield and proto-screwshield would better suit my purposes. My main question would then be, can I somehow connect the the metro 328 with the picade x? and then configure the metro 328 to reconize the inputs from the picade as keystrokes and send those over bluetooth. I believe this would be the best way to handle this. Also stacking a powerboost shield with it all to power the metro and possible the picade also? I dont know what im doing but would love to try and build this but would hate to buy a bunch of stuff for it not to work -_-

https://www.adafruit.com/product/50

https://www.adafruit.com/product/196

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2078

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2746

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3402

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