Fletchtronics

UPDATE: Preorders are closed. This product is not going to be created because of lack of interest. We will probably offer a game pad at some future time, but not this one. Meantime, you can build your own joyticks and gamepads using Bumble-B

The DIYPad is coming soon to fletchtronics! It is a hand-held game controller that shows what the Bumble-B is capable of.

It's the perfect gift for anyone curious about microcontrollers and electronics who also has an interest in making or playing computer games. The DIYPad is a kit that requires soldering, so make sure you have a soldering iron and some solder handy.

The supplied Bumble-B ships with joystick firmware pre-installed that will work on any operating system that supports USB HID joysticks. That includes pretty much all modern computer operating systems and platforms. The full source code is supplied (see below for link), ready to be expand and enhanced with custom code.

• Practice soldering
• Learn about digital circuits
• Learn about microcontroller programming
• Customize with your own project case and/or external circuitry
• Perfect gift for anyone with an interest in computer games and electronics!

There is plenty of expansion ports and processing power to attach more LEDs, more buttons, or to add additional integrated circuits and do something entirely new.

Bumble-B doing the driving

Kit contents:

• (1) DIYPad printed circuit board
• (1) Bumble-B with the power header permanently connected in bus power mode
• (1) 2x2 button pad
• (4) RGB LEDs (common anode)
• (1) CAT9532 LED driver (surface mount part, pre-soldered)
• (4) extra IO with PWM capability connected to the LED driver
• (1) Analog thumb joystick
• (1) MCP3204 analog to digital converter connected to the joystick
• (1) Vibration motor for force feedback
• (4) I2C expansion headers, enabling expansion of the I2C bus with new integrated circuits or breakout board devices.
• (8) General purpose IO pins brought out directly from BumbleB
• 2x3 ISP header for programming with an AVRISP or STK5/600 device
• Small tactile buttons connected to RESET and HWB to make flashing new firmware easy

Happy colorful buttons!

Links

• Bumble-B
• Firmware Source Code v002 (in progress)
• User Manual v000 (in progress)

Note: The source code for the firmware and the user manual are both still being written. They will be updated here when changes are made.

all three prototypes together