I was thinking about trying my hand at making a DIY button box for sims

[G+_Wolf 68k]

I was thinking about trying my hand at making a DIY button box for sims.

I came across a video (several in-fact) showing how to use a zero delay joystick controller which makes life easier. The only thing is that these kits are just 12 buttons and a 4-way hat switch, which could make it 16 buttons/switches.

 

Looking at Amazon I find some kits are 2 kits in one bundle, ideally meant for MAME cabinets connecting so something like a Raspberry Pi using 2 USB cables.

 

My question is, would it possible to bridge the 2 boards together via the USB wires, shove both boards into 1 project box to give me 24-32 buttons/switches, but only using 1 USB cable to connect to my PC?

 

My thinking is keep the connector that goes to, let's call it, board1 but cut the wires coming off it for it's USB cable. Then with board2 and it's USB cable, strip back the insulation and solder the wires from board1 onto the wires for board2. But I'm not sure if I would need to but anything between them like a resistor or some such. About 90% of me is thinking I would not need to, and that the bridge would work. However if someone has a better idea of how to bridge them together, I'm all ears.

 

I just need someone to confirm my theory before I do this so I don't end up seeing the magic smoke appear.

 

I know that I could do a lot of this with 1 arduino nano or some such board. I've seen a multi-part video series on that. It requires a bunch of soldering and programming. I'm trying to avoid as much of that as I can for my first time. Maybe that will come later.

 

Side question; has anyone worked with one of these controllers before?

I know there are 2 sets of inputs on the board, one is a 5-pin and the others are separate sets of pins and that here is a mode button that switches between them. One mode sets it so it's like a joystick input (I think that's the 5-pin) and the other modes uses the other set of pins to be the hat switch (up, down, left, right). The question here is, if default is the 5-pin and I switch use the hat switch, does it remember that mode if the USB has been disconnected or will it always default back to the 5-pin?

[G+_Ben Reese]

To get more pins, I think you'd be better off using something like the MCP23017. It uses I²C to communicate with the host (either Raspberry Pi or Arduino) and gives another 16 pins.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/732

 

Now, I don't know how exactly to use it or fit it into your project, but it should work.

 

As for splitting the USB cable to connect 2 devices.... You can do that for power but not data. For that you'd need a USB hub.