Connect Gamepad to Makerbuino / Custom Buttons

Hi there,
has anybody thought of connecting a gamepad to the Makerbuino?
I am thinking of replacing the already discussed “clicky buttons” with a gamepad D-Pad.

Any thoughts?

You could use the I2C-Port and an I/O port expander like the one that is included in the inventor’s kit :slight_smile:

*Edit: of course this won’t work with the existing games because you’ll need to poll the pin states of the port expander every frame. But you could adapt the existing games to support your own D-Pad.

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yes i had add it in game Parachute. it’s easy to manage, but you have to good adjust moves in your game with the returned value. Have a look on parachute code, you’ll understand how it’s works and if you don’t i’ll help

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Thanks for the quick answers!
I thought of two different ways. Either to add the buttons by connecting with a cable or mounting a D Pad directly on the board and replace the pushbuttons.
For example cutting the area from a gamepad-board ( example: https://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Attachment/52572-image004-jpg/) with the D Pad and adding it on top of the existing area for the pushbuttons and then connect the wires to the existing lines on the board. Is that possible in theory? Or do i have to reconfigure all games and config-files?

It should be possible if you can figure out how the buttons on the gamepad-board are connected. Then you won’t need to reconfigure the games. Technically it’s possible to connect the new buttons but you’ll need to use the GND signal of the MAKERbuino.

I am ready to start!



If there is progress, i will show here!

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This looks promising!
I’m curious to see more! :smile:

Hey guys, today I made some progress. I cut the gamepad d pad pcb and also the top of the gamepad cover… Mounting on the lasercut will be a topic. But for now I will continue trying to keep the old screw domes. Let’s see, if it doesn’t really work out I will model a top cover in cad and then 3d print.

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Hey today again some progress. As you might have noticed I was stopping the assembling process before even adding the clicky buttons. So now that the buttons are exchanged I can continue the overall assembling process before I can give feedback how the buttons work now. Until now I am very happy with the first look. Let’s see how it goes on…

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@Snydea, this is starting to look really cool!

I’ll share it over at MAKERbuino’s social media and you keep us updated on your progress :slight_smile:

Also, you’ve just earned a couple of snazzy badges!

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Hey guys, i finally made it!

Here is the result of the Custom Buttons makerbuino project!


If i had more time i could imagine a 3D printed Case with these integrated Buttons… But for now i am more than happy! It works quite good!

But some advice for those who might follow this idea: dont Short cable too much, be Patient while Customizing plastic parts!

Here a short video:

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Wow, looking neat! Well done :slight_smile:

The video doesn’t seem to be working, though. Can you try posting it again as we’d love to share it on our social media channels.

No Problem, i will try again this evening…

Test Video link 1 (Problem is, it is linking to my googledrive and it automatically makes a preview in the Post, instead of showing the link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VB2phmXFSJFgkXlnGiy2XBCmZ6FPZkoY/view?usp=drivesdk.

Or Here YouTube link

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Seems very good. Well done.