whilechukwuzout
1 W
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2013
- Messages
- 59
Hi all,
Yesterday I bought a Wii nunchuk to use for a controller for my e-board project (http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=52171). Naturally the first thing I did was tear it open to see its guts. I have read alot about the nunchuk, and heard mixed reviews with its use as a controller. The main three detracters seem to be the following:
-Multi-directional joystick is difficult to control in only one direction
-Not enough resistance on the joystick
-Not enough travel in the joystick
I am happy to say I have come up with a fix for the first item. I will be working on the second soon. Sadly I dont think there is much that can be done about the third item, however if the second item is fixed, the third item might not be so much of a concern.
This is how I fixed the joystick to only work in one direction:
First, I needed to open the darn thing. There are two holes on the underside of the nunchuk which have the screws deep inside.
Getting them out in a clean manner is not a simple task. The nunchuk uses those evil three lobed security screws. (sorry for blurriness)
While finding multi-driver sets is relatively easy, most of the heads are sold as inserts, which makes them very difficult to fit down in these holes. What I did was take the tri-lobe head, and using my dremel, put a notch in the bottom (if you look closely you can see the notch)
This allowed me to drop the insert down into the hole, and turn it with a flathead screwdriver. It took a great deal of patience, but I finally got the bastards out, revealing the guts of the controller. (A side note: once the two screws are out, there are still two plastic catches on the glossy top cover, so you will have to really yank it off. Be careful, because when I finally got the cover off, the insides went flying all over.)
Taking off the joystick (it should pull right off) revealed the joystick sensor.
As you can see, there is a quasi-spherical rotator inside that allows the right to left movement. My goal was to somehow constrain it. I wanted to do so in a reversible manner, just in case I found a use for the side-to-side motion of the joystick in the future. You could easily fix the joystick in one axis by applying a dab of epoxy to the joint of the axis you want to fix, but this could ruin your controller, and is irreversible.
So what I did was create a restraining plate from an old credit card (my silver mileage plus card, to be exact. Gold status now baby!) To do this I used a set of small files and an exacto knife. I suggest putting on netflix while you do this. To do it right, you need to do it slowly, constantly check the part against the controller to make sure you didnt make the slot too big. This takes some patience.
As I was wondering how I would fix the plate to the sensor, I noticed the small hole in the lower left hand corner. I decided I would screw the plate into the sensor using that hole, and those stupid tri-lobe screws from the enclosure. For good measure I drilled a second hole in the upper right hand corner (this took patience and a VERY steady hand). The size drill seems to be 1.4mm. I also needed to widen the existing hole. This was done using the same 1.4mm drill bit. Then I took the screws and very carefully screwed them into the holes, to make sure they wouldnt interfere with anything inside, and to cut the initial threads. The screws will self-thread but you need to apply alot of force and be very careful. Again, patience is the name of the game here.
Then I was ready to drill the corresponding holes in my restraining plate. For this I used a 1.8mm bit so that the screws could pass through the plate easily.
The only thing left to do was to screw the plate onto the sensor and test it out.
It worked like a charm! All I had to do now was put the thing back together.
To do this I used regular old fashioned phillips screws I scavenged from a Nyko KAMA controller. (by the way, dont buy these. They dont play nicely with the arduino. I have a wireless one on order and I am nervous that it is going to suck.)
The controller feels alot more stable already now that the joystick only moves in one direction. I will start looking into how to stiffen it up soon, and post back with my results. Cheers!
Yesterday I bought a Wii nunchuk to use for a controller for my e-board project (http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=52171). Naturally the first thing I did was tear it open to see its guts. I have read alot about the nunchuk, and heard mixed reviews with its use as a controller. The main three detracters seem to be the following:
-Multi-directional joystick is difficult to control in only one direction
-Not enough resistance on the joystick
-Not enough travel in the joystick
I am happy to say I have come up with a fix for the first item. I will be working on the second soon. Sadly I dont think there is much that can be done about the third item, however if the second item is fixed, the third item might not be so much of a concern.
This is how I fixed the joystick to only work in one direction:
First, I needed to open the darn thing. There are two holes on the underside of the nunchuk which have the screws deep inside.
Getting them out in a clean manner is not a simple task. The nunchuk uses those evil three lobed security screws. (sorry for blurriness)
While finding multi-driver sets is relatively easy, most of the heads are sold as inserts, which makes them very difficult to fit down in these holes. What I did was take the tri-lobe head, and using my dremel, put a notch in the bottom (if you look closely you can see the notch)
This allowed me to drop the insert down into the hole, and turn it with a flathead screwdriver. It took a great deal of patience, but I finally got the bastards out, revealing the guts of the controller. (A side note: once the two screws are out, there are still two plastic catches on the glossy top cover, so you will have to really yank it off. Be careful, because when I finally got the cover off, the insides went flying all over.)
Taking off the joystick (it should pull right off) revealed the joystick sensor.
As you can see, there is a quasi-spherical rotator inside that allows the right to left movement. My goal was to somehow constrain it. I wanted to do so in a reversible manner, just in case I found a use for the side-to-side motion of the joystick in the future. You could easily fix the joystick in one axis by applying a dab of epoxy to the joint of the axis you want to fix, but this could ruin your controller, and is irreversible.
So what I did was create a restraining plate from an old credit card (my silver mileage plus card, to be exact. Gold status now baby!) To do this I used a set of small files and an exacto knife. I suggest putting on netflix while you do this. To do it right, you need to do it slowly, constantly check the part against the controller to make sure you didnt make the slot too big. This takes some patience.
As I was wondering how I would fix the plate to the sensor, I noticed the small hole in the lower left hand corner. I decided I would screw the plate into the sensor using that hole, and those stupid tri-lobe screws from the enclosure. For good measure I drilled a second hole in the upper right hand corner (this took patience and a VERY steady hand). The size drill seems to be 1.4mm. I also needed to widen the existing hole. This was done using the same 1.4mm drill bit. Then I took the screws and very carefully screwed them into the holes, to make sure they wouldnt interfere with anything inside, and to cut the initial threads. The screws will self-thread but you need to apply alot of force and be very careful. Again, patience is the name of the game here.
Then I was ready to drill the corresponding holes in my restraining plate. For this I used a 1.8mm bit so that the screws could pass through the plate easily.
The only thing left to do was to screw the plate onto the sensor and test it out.
It worked like a charm! All I had to do now was put the thing back together.
To do this I used regular old fashioned phillips screws I scavenged from a Nyko KAMA controller. (by the way, dont buy these. They dont play nicely with the arduino. I have a wireless one on order and I am nervous that it is going to suck.)
The controller feels alot more stable already now that the joystick only moves in one direction. I will start looking into how to stiffen it up soon, and post back with my results. Cheers!
I've yet to get mine working as I don't have to do the troubleshootig and figure it out part. I've been using my HK RC Controller but would like to move to something smaller.
