DescentBB

Fee's on Paypal are quite high, so it should be wise to give alternative options.

Personally, I would like to pay with Paypal or Western Union.

hmm munk, maybe we can combine our orders? than KB needs to ship only 1 big paket to germany and you pass it on to me?

btw forgot to thank you KB and Grendel for the great work on this converter, that thing compares to the invention of sliced bread

DigiJo,

You are most welcome, I just wis I could afford to prepay for all of them. But alas that's the life of a single parent of a 9 and 7 year old I guess

But I am more than happy to invest the time to get one of these in everyone's hands that wants one!

KB

If it would help I can take a second unit... I am sure it will be put to good use sooner or later I have no objection to paying in advance, I can do paypal or whatever.

WillyP wrote:If it would help I can take a second unit... I am sure it will be put to good use sooner or later I have no objection to paying in advance, I can do paypal or whatever.

WillyP, that's a great offer but only take a secomd one if you need it. I think our quantites are about where we need them to be. I am finishing up a good size projecct this week and expect that I should have time to pull this together.

If you want a 2nd one I will be more than happy to oblige but please don't feel it a requirement.

Best Regards,
Mike Sullivan

PayPal personal account is free -- people just can't pay via credit card, the money has to come from their bank accounts or PayPal funds.

Paypal would be cool for me!

I can Paypal from a bank account. Would be the simplest way for me.

Just another option maybe. I have paid directly into company bank accounts to purchase goods on a few occasions. Seems pretty straight forward I think. You could provide account details and we simply transfer the required amount directly. If there is no cost you can even set up a specific account for this project.

Fredstar wrote:Just another option maybe. I have paid directly into company bank accounts to purchase goods on a few occasions. Seems pretty straight forward I think. You could provide account details and we simply transfer the required amount directly. If there is no cost you can even set up a specific account for this project.

Yeah, x2 on that one!

Heya KoolBear! Put me down for two complete units!

I miss my Sidewinder...

Daffy wrote:Heya KoolBear! Put me down for two complete units!

I miss my Sidewinder...

Logged I know the feeling

I will get pricing for the components this weekend based on the quantities listed.

I won't get bare board pricing back till next week.

I'll should have pricing on assembly too.

The only thing I am sure is overseas shipping.

KB

First time poster to descentBB...hi all.

Me want to buy one!!!

joeykork wrote:First time poster to descentBB...hi all.

Me want to buy one!!!

Welcone joey!

1 unit logged.

ok, i have 2 questions..

#1 is it too late to get one?

#2 is there any way that i can get it compatible for a Force feedback pro? or would i have to modify it myself?

crazy328 wrote:ok, i have 2 questions..

#1 is it too late to get one?

#2 is there any way that i can get it compatible for a Force feedback pro? or would i have to modify it myself?

Hi Crazy328,

#1 No it is not too late.

#2 Grendel will need to answer this one., once he answers and if you are still interested I will add you to the list.

well, if i can get it modified for FF Pro, then i definatly want one =P.. or if the current version that is being mass produced, kinda, works for FF Pro, then i'll get it

Question would be: what's your background ? In theory it could be modified since the protocol is pretty close to the 3DP. I don't know if the FFP uses the same two trigger lines tho (X1 & Y2 on the 3DP). Also, you can't do force feedback since noone ever reverse engineered the FF commands.

well, what do you mean by background? do i have experience modifying, or soldering parts or stuff like that?.. i have not done that myself, my brother has soldered stuff, same with my dad.. but i just dont want to screw it up.. as for FF.. it doesnt really matter a whole lot.. since it has a power adapter, i can still feel some force even with it only being plugged in.. and that those two trigger lines, where could i find out about that? so that this would be possible?

Some hardware and some software (C & assembler) skills are necessary to do the changes. Mainly the latter.

so i take it i'd have to do the modifications with some guidance from you?.. i know my dad knows some c programming.. and like i've said, he's soldered before.. so is that the case?

i'm mainly just concerned about ruining something.. lol, would rather it done right by someone else than done what i think might be right by me =P

crazy328 wrote:so i take it i'd have to do the modifications with some guidance from you?.. i know my dad knows some c programming.. and like i've said, he's soldered before.. so is that the case?

That's probably not enough -- take a look at the project, you can find it here -- the archive is behind the "Project archive 2007-01-19" link near the bottom of that page.

The only way I see how this could work would be me modifying the software and you testing it and maybe building a little DB15-DA15 adapter. I'm not sure I want to do it, I'll take a look at the FFP protocol. tho. If it's simple I could give it a try.

well, i've been looking for some time.. i've come across several things i could try.. i needa get a sound card for some.. looks like someone might have made a driver to make a gameport work with vista x64.. if modifying your design, and all the other stuff cant be done too easily.. then i suppose i can try that driver.. if that doesnt work, i'll just have to revert to vista x86.. or win XP..

i appreciate all your help.. if you are able to do it.. i'd be willing to pay a little extra for all your trouble.. thanks again

Since I own 3 of the MS Sidewinder series (stick, wheels, and the motion sensing pad thing), I'd be happy even if they just basically work again.

2 units, fully-built, boxed or not (if not available).

I have rec'd a number of sound overseas shipments via FedEx and DHL, which seem pretty electronics-compatible.

Los Angeles, CA - USA

Paypal's good for me.

fndtn wrote:...
2 units, fully-built... me.

Added, welcome to the party!

fndtn, just remember, this is for the 3D pro.. dunno myself if it will work with those 3 things.. might want to confirm it.. just a thought

Grendel - any progress thus-far? i honestly dont want to be too much a bother.. if you cant do it too easily then dont feel obligated.. i do appreciate you looking into it for me though.. thanks again!

I did a quick peek, nothing too deep so far. Problem is that I have to reverse engineer the FFP's data structure from the linux SW driver source (it's the only reference for the SW protocol there is..) Not easy and I haven't had the time to dig into that yet. Maybe over the weekend.

1st pass draft compilation of expendetures related to this effort.

This spreadsheet is based off assumptions. I should have detailed pricing for the board early next week.

At the top of the pdf are two PRELIMINARY/BUGETARY prices one is for a completed unit the other for blank pcb.

AS I get formal quotes in I will update this sheet.

I have it saved in a pdf file CLICK HERE

KB

the reverse engineering is for if i wanted Force feedback, correct? or is it so i can also have all the buttons available? if i can get all the buttons, and not worry about the force feedback, that would be fine

KoolBear wrote:PRELIMINARY/BUDGETARY

Great, thanks KB. Extremely reasonable, albeit preliminary.

I just saw an error the first set of boards (60) was $440 not $400 I have in the spread sheet

Man I think I have an error on my spread sheet. please dis-regard my previous post. I got a detailed quote from Digikey.com for the electronic components. And it was considerably lower than my spreadsheet. Guess I need to see where my error is I did notice that nearly all componets were cheaper.

There was a problem with the main chip either it wasn't available or it was obsolete. I will check with mouser.com.

KB

KoolBear wrote: There was a problem with the main chip either it wasn't available or it was obsolete. I will check with mouser.com.

KB

New part number at Digikey is Atmega8-16PU-ND. They made the chip ROHS compliant and obsoleted other part number.

Thanks flip! I'll post a qote from digikey later today.

Something wrong w/ the quote. The price in the BOM is for the quantities specified already. The number in () in the BOM are minimum order quantities (sorry for not pointing that out more clearly..) Eg. the LEDs are $2.78 for 10, ie. it would be 50 for $13.09. Same goes for C6-9, R5-7, R3-4, R2 & R1. Also take out the 28-pin sockets, don't need them in a production board (spendy). Components should be below $15 that way I'll run it through DigiKey and append the exact price.
Notes: do not use the 16PI Atmega8, it's the industrial version and is not in stock. Found a cheaper LM556. Both chips have price breaks at 10 units. Total cost per board: $7.90

Cool Grendel.

So when and how do we start with the payment option/s?

KB, another quick note regarding the DigiKey quote above -- the components are not selected for automatic loading, they probably have to be loaded manually. If the solder guy needs reels or whatnot you'll have to work w/ him to find the right stuff.

P.S. Haven't had the time to check the FFP out yet. Looks like it's almost the same as the PP tho. I got one of those so I could run some tests. Wonder if the native dongle of the PP would work on the FFP.. And yes, it would be without any FF functionality. Limp stick.

Qick question for crazy328 -- does the connector of the FFP look like the top one in the picture below ? (top one is a PP, bottom one a 3DP connector)

yup, looks just like that top picture.. if you can get FF to work easily, go ahead, but if not, dont worry about it

Put the project on the backburner, turns out that the data stream from newer model PP is very different from the older one. I'll look around if I can find a PP or FFP for cheap and try again. The good news is that the hardware mod to support the PP or FFP is very simple -- a short wire betw. pins 11 & 13 on the DA15 connector is all that's needed. Even backwards compatible to the 3PD