Must make Xbox to PS2 adapter... MUST!

[Jasoco]

As chronicled in my post over at Digital Press, I can't use the PS2 controller for pain in my hands and frustration abound.

 

So I am on a quest. A quest to find a converter, or at very least, a better shapped/positioned PS2 controller. One whose L1 and R1 buttons aren't out of reach. One whose left Control Stick is up where it should be, in place of the D-pad. With the D-pad where the stick is. The way it is on the Xbox and Cube. The way I am used to. The comfortable way.

 

Now, leave the controller arguments out of this thread. Let's just talk shop.

 

Now, while I was at the EB today picking up some more 70% off figurines I saw a PS2 to Xbox/Cube converter. And after the hatred for the PS2 controller subsided in me, I got a thought. The Xbox controller is basically USB, right? At first I thought this was keeping people from making converters because of the whole USB thing. But if companies can easily make a little box to convert the USB signals into PS2 signals, why the hell can't I make a box to switch it backwards? Can a device easily be made to convert Xbox signals to PS2 signals?

 

I would have bought the converter to play with right there, but it was $20. Too much to just destroy it in hopes of trying.

 

Anyone familiar with a converter like this? Can it be Reverse-Engineered? Is it POSSIBLE to easily convert an Xbox controller into a PS2 controller? So I can FINALLY be HAPPY to play a PS2/PSX game?

[Greenious]

http://www.xbox-scene.com/

 

If the info isn't there, it simply does not exist.

[Starscream]

I don't know if it could easily be done because the Xbox controller is pretty much just a USB device. Also, you would only be gaining comfort not more precision in games. I do feel ya though as I really don't care for the PS2 controller but I have learned to live with it

[socialdrone]

you could dissasemble a xbox and ps2 controler. scape the xbox circuit board clean wire the button leads to the ps2 controller somehow try and make it all fit in the xbox controler.

 

i have a similar problem...my hands have been beaten and broken from skateboarding, my finger joints hurt only after a minute or two of using the sony controller. the ps2 is a torture device as far as i am concerned.

 

instead of trying to use a xbox controler i just used standard arcade controls...but the idea is the same.

 

or you could build a ciruit that decoded the microsoft signals and then encoded them into something the playstation could understand...and so on...but that takes a lot more work. well at least for me.

 

i did something similar with a nes and a atari 2600 joystick, but im positive whatever sony and microsoft are using is far more advanced

[Jasoco]

I don't know if it could easily be done because the Xbox controller is pretty much just a USB device. Also' date=' you would only be gaining comfort not more precision in games. I do feel ya though as I really don't care for the PS2 controller but I have learned to live with it [/quote']

I can't learn to live with it. I simply can not learn to bend my fingers where they were not meant to go!

 

I think it MUST be possible. If you can convert a PS2 controller TO an Xbox (USB) signal, there must be a way to go the other way. Right?

 

you could dissasemble a xbox and ps2 controler. scape the xbox circuit board clean wire the button leads to the ps2 controller somehow try and make it all fit in the xbox controler.

That's my last resort. To hack a PS2's circuits into an Xbox Controller shell. And it HAS to be a Big controller.

 

But before I spend all the money on two controllers, anyone have photos of both controllers inside? I could take my own apart, but if I can get around that...

[Starscream]

Yeah I forgot about those converter thingies. So it should be possible. Check out xbox-scene for the internals of an XB controller

[Mr.FoodMonster]

If you simply got a X-Box to PS2 converter, you would be losing a couple buttons. Not a problem for some games, but a big problem for others. I think the best way would be to hack up some controllers, sadly.

[Jasoco]

If you simply got a X-Box to PS2 converter, you would be losing a couple buttons. Not a problem for some games, but a big problem for others. I think the best way would be to hack up some controllers, sadly.

What buttons would you lose? Mybe locations, but not actual buttons.

 

Z, B, X, Y are matches for the shapes.

 

L and R could be L2 and R2. Black and White would substitute for L1 and R1. (The device could have a switch to swap these button sets if need be.)

 

Two sticks.

 

Both sticks have buttons.

 

Back would be Select, Start is Start.

 

And a D-Pad.

 

All the buttons are accounted for. No missing anything. The Xbox has the same amount of buttons.

[Viso]

So I am on a quest. A quest to find a converter, or at very least, a better shapped/positioned PS2 controller. One whose L1 and R1 buttons aren't out of reach. One whose left Control Stick is up where it should be, in place of the D-pad. With the D-pad where the stick is. The way it is on the Xbox and Cube. The way I am used to. The comfortable way.

I have the opposite problem; if I don't hold the X-Box controller in a slightly awkward fashion, as if it has those L1 and R1 buttons, then using the controller will hurt my wrists. Anyway . . .

 

The Playstation controllers (PS1 and PS2) use a fairly simple full duplex synchonous serial connection. I know this because I have interfaced a PIC microcontroller to my Dual Shock 2 controller, and the Dual Shock 2 still works with my PS2.

 

USB is a good bit more complex. As I understand it, there is a pretty involved protocol implemented on top of the physical asynchronous serial transport. I'm told that a USB master/host device, such as the controller interface on the X-Box, is notably more complex than a USB slave device, like the controller. USB supporting microcontrollers all seem to support the slave side of the communication, so they may not help much. Might also explain the lack of a commercially made X-Box to PS2 controller adapter.

[Jasoco]

I saw a controller for the PSX the other day that looked like it may be easier to at least hit the L and R buttons. It was called a Barracuda I think. And was funny shaped like a surfboard/boomerang/whatever and well, if there was a PS2 version, I might be more inclined to stop complaining.

 

I forget who made it.

 

.. Google..

 

Yes! Barracuda... Picture below.

 

I wonder if there's a PS2 version. Who's it made by? The page it was on has no name and even the page doesn't have the image anymore.

[Jasoco]

Forget it. Interact. Duh!

 

So, anyone know if it was made as a PS2 one too?

[Jasoco]

And the search continues..

 

The controller isn't good either.

 

At this rate I will NEVER find a viable solution to my PSX/PS2 controller conundrum.

[Jasoco]

Wait. Back the train up.

 

Turns out I just had to reprogram the buttons.

 

The L and R buttons seem to feel fine. One of them sticks a little though, I can probably fix it. But the only problem is still the location of the control stick. Not only does my thumb fall past it (The stick ends up in the middle of the thumb. Whereas if it were where it should be, my thumb would reach perfectly.) but it isn't solid. It turns. So if I have to go from left to right or right to left fast, my thumb slips right off the stick. I guess I could fix that with some glue or something. Something to stop it turning like a steering wheel.

 

Question though, if anyone is still reading, how many games on the PS2 if any REQUIRE analog controls of an actual PS2 controller? Since this is a PSX controller, I won't get the special analog buttons I get with a real PS2 controller. I don't suppose Interact made a PS2 version of this controller? Before they went away?