Universal Wireless Console Controller

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You know you need one too: I'm not the only gamer I know who has 2 or more consoles stuffed away in his entertainment cabinet.

Has anyone ever made a universal remote controller? How hard could it be? I envision taking it out of its charging cradle, turning it on, powering up the system, and playing. When you're ready to switch to another console, turn that console on and play. No wires. There are no new dreamcast products, so I think I'm still on the right trail. Users with snes and friends will want similar products, I think.
Features would have to include
  • wireless controller
  • takes standard rechargeable batteries
  • charges with cable attached to cradle
  • comes with kit to power up each console remotely ala the xenon controller center button?
  • modern wireless controllers use 2.4 ghz broadcasting.
Plan for building it?
  1. Choose favorite controller body.
    • If multiple wireless controllers are still on the market for each console, the most documented one would be a clear winner for a starting point to mod in terms of time.
    • Ps2 is still the most-installed seat base, but Ps2 is the simplest controller because there is no memory card access local to the controller. The dreamcast and xbox both require local memory card usage in the hand unit, which probably requires more robust I/O.
    • Has max buttons of all controller features.
    • Can add additional buttons if they're not standard.
  2. Find the mapping of the ps2 logitech controller output signals
    • map it manually to get an idea of the frequency, signal patterns sent out, would give us the full range of output.
      • Mapping the hand-input to the signals sent gives us our requirement spec for the console-side reciever
    • Find or ask for developer docs.
  3. With the mapping for the controller I/O in hand, we need the documentation for the dreamcast wired controller pin-in-out mappings.
    • If this is unavailable, we need to monitor the pin-in-outs during gameplay, memory card access, and write our own spec.
    • Then we map them back to the ps2 controller.
      • George at work suggested a cheaper, faster workaround;
        • buy a wired controller for each console.
        • Rip out and control the I/O devices from each controller from one common device
          • (map hardware to send the signal to each console controller chip, getting console-specific output from the original hardware). Then the work is mainly building the wireless input recievers on each console.
  4. build hardware to decode the A signals on the console dongle-side and perform the I/O mapping to the new console.
  5. demonstrate that the wireless console dongles can map themselves to the same controller ID so 2 or more players can all play at the same time. Whatever dongle technology exists on the model implementation (the modded device) needs to be implemented or replaced on the new dongles.

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