Hi - I'm the author. As far as I know ASCII, who made the peripheral, discontinued it many moons ago. A real pity, because actual USB controllable vibes are, at this time, very expensive. So really, you needed to get your hands on the Japanese limited edition of PS2 Rez.
Sometimes you can find one still in it's shrink in the old game stores, e.g. in the backalleys of Akihabara.
But... if you're not easily squicked out and know how to use sanitisers, they're not uncommon on the Japanese second hand games market. They'll run you about ¥1,800: ~US$18.
A cursory read of the comments in your driver tells me oodles about the device. Most notably that it has a single 8 bit PWM. I have a background in embedded control, so I, of course, am envisioning how to create a proper device. Anything from a basic device with the same single PWM to deluxe versions with certain added capabilities. Could make somebody a lot of money. Not in Mississippi, though. Such toys are illegal there, I've heard.
American Inventor, here I come. Just kidding; that show is terrible.
If you do decide to do something similar, and keep it using the same interface, I know a few people who might be interested in buying one just to play Rez with.
If you go and create something more elaborate, in addition to being my new hero, go and drop them a line at Slashdong - they've been standing around scratching their heads about how to go about reimplementing this unit. It would be particularly interesting if the endpoint was able to apply PWM across the power lines of existing battery powered toys. I believe this is how the "Sinulator" product works - at a frightful US$129!
I don't know much about the innards - I used a USB analyser to pull apart a Japanese windows application that drove the unit, and then found Rob Mayoff's skeletal libusb driver, and wrote from there. I can crack open one of my units and take pictures if it would help though.
Pictures might help. But all I'd really need to know from them is stuff such as whether it has more than one motor, or whether it has any other hardware which the app you snooped doesn't make use of. I suspect it is just the one vibrator motor.
The interface that your driver describes is about as simple as it gets. Should be doable. I don't even have Rez.
I guess I'll have to check out Slashdong and see where they are with the headscratching.
Where is/are the thread(s) where the custom hardware is being discussed? I've just joined.
I found this, which has some photos. Unfortunately, I cannot read the chips or see if there is anything on the reverse side of the board. It looks like there may be places for several LEDs on it. I'm guessing that the square chip near the captive USB cable is probably one of the FTDI chips. Probably the serial one. It has way too many parts for what it is. The pictures do appear to show exactly one vibration motor.
I'm guessing one of the 8 pin chips is a small microcontroller, and the other one is who knows what. Maybe an I2C or SPI EEPROM. The slew of resistors on the left side seems a bit weird. It looks like an R/2R ladder.
Designing new hardware, as you have indicated above, definitely seems to be the way to go.
I know lots of ladies I could make real happy.
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Sometimes you can find one still in it's shrink in the old game stores, e.g. in the backalleys of Akihabara.
But... if you're not easily squicked out and know how to use sanitisers, they're not uncommon on the Japanese second hand games market. They'll run you about ¥1,800: ~US$18.
-- curious_jp
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Yes, I _am_ terrible.
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-- curious_jp
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I was sort of afraid of that. (unavailability)
A cursory read of the comments in your driver tells me oodles about the device. Most notably that it has a single 8 bit PWM. I have a background in embedded control, so I, of course, am envisioning how to create a proper device. Anything from a basic device with the same single PWM to deluxe versions with certain added capabilities. Could make somebody a lot of money. Not in Mississippi, though. Such toys are illegal there, I've heard.
American Inventor, here I come. Just kidding; that show is terrible.
Reply
If you go and create something more elaborate, in addition to being my new hero, go and drop them a line at Slashdong - they've been standing around scratching their heads about how to go about reimplementing this unit. It would be particularly interesting if the endpoint was able to apply PWM across the power lines of existing battery powered toys. I believe this is how the "Sinulator" product works - at a frightful US$129!
I don't know much about the innards - I used a USB analyser to pull apart a Japanese windows application that drove the unit, and then found Rob Mayoff's skeletal libusb driver, and wrote from there. I can crack open one of my units and take pictures if it would help though.
Sorry to hear about Mississippi!
-- curious_jp
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The interface that your driver describes is about as simple as it gets. Should be doable. I don't even have Rez.
I guess I'll have to check out Slashdong and see where they are with the headscratching.
Yeah. Me too.
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(The comment has been removed)
I found this, which has some photos. Unfortunately, I cannot read the chips or see if there is anything on the reverse side of the board. It looks like there may be places for several LEDs on it. I'm guessing that the square chip near the captive USB cable is probably one of the FTDI chips. Probably the serial one. It has way too many parts for what it is. The pictures do appear to show exactly one vibration motor.
I'm guessing one of the 8 pin chips is a small microcontroller, and the other one is who knows what. Maybe an I2C or SPI EEPROM. The slew of resistors on the left side seems a bit weird. It looks like an R/2R ladder.
Designing new hardware, as you have indicated above, definitely seems to be the way to go.
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