Microcontroller for game controller

Max Frank Guest 2016-01-07 17:41 #4416349

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Hello everyone,

I am interested in creating my own game controller.

I know that there are some Arduinos which support the game controller 
creation (like the Arduino Esplora, the Leonardo or the pro micro), but 
I think it would be interesting to find a new microcontroller (since I 
know the Arduino series quite good, I think).

I read that I need USB HID support and thus native USB (so no V-USB or 
stuff like that). I know that the Atmega32U4 supports native USB, but 
are there others who support native USB and are well documented?

And if you have general advice on this topic, feel free to contribute!

Kind regards from Germany
Max Frank

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Jim M. (turboj) 2016-01-07 17:50 #4416364

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Max Frank wrote:
> I read that I need USB HID support and thus native USB (so no V-USB or
> stuff like that).

You might need to clean your glasses (or choose better lecture). V-USB 
should (at least in theory) support HID, as this only needs Interrupt 
endpoint(s). In fact, may game controllers are USB low speed devices.

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Max Frank Guest 2016-01-07 19:31 #4416509

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Hey.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Indeed, I did not read that I need native USB, but I read that there are 
some issues with V-USB. This is why I thought that it could be better to 
use native USB.

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Lothar Guest 2016-01-07 20:12 #4416553

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Max Frank wrote:
> Atmega32U4 supports native USB

These are much cheaper and much faster and HID demo is included:

http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/8-bit/efm8-universal-bee/Pages/efm8-universal-bee.aspx

Even these ARM are cheaper and even have built-in ROM drivers for HID:

http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/arm-processors/lpc-arm-cortex-m-mcus/lpc-cortex-m3/lpc1300-series:MC_1403790687302

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Max Frank Guest 2016-01-07 20:17 #4416559

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Thank you, Lothar.
I will definitely check them out.

Does anyone know how the "usual" gamecontroller do this?
Do they have custom designed microcontrollers? Or well known ones?

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Lothar Guest 2016-01-07 20:55 #4416610

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I have seen "simple" controllers with Chinese 8051 e.g. STC and complex 
ones usually ARM e.g. STM32:

https://de.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+Move+Controller+Teardown/3596

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