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This is a multidisciplinary project repository with the end goal of creating a replacement of the Nintendo Joycons Joystick with a touch pad. This project is inspired by the write up by Matteo Pisani but aims to create a more integrated end product.
the touchpad used in the inspiring blog post is a fun product, but it presents a few major problems to this project.
- Having a premade design is inflexible and the form factor is imperfect
- Cirque provides no design documents for the touchpad itself
- The Cirque touch controller itself is not available at the usual suspects Therefore, at this time Freude diverges from its inspiration by using a touch controller by Azoteq.
One downside of the Azoteq that has been uncovered in the Proof-of-Concept trial is that the z detection is not easily correlated to pressure applied to the track pad. This means that the track pad alone will not be a reliable source for the joystick button, and another method will have to be employed. While a double tap on the track pad would be an effective method, the project aims to be a direct replacement, therefore implementation of a button is the current considered path.
The other divergence from the Pisani project is that Freude will use DACs internal to its uC rather than utilizing an I2C DAC. The reasoning is having an I2C DAC when there are STM32 chips with two DAC channels is unnecessary and room in this project will be tight.
As currently planned Freude will be implemented on two PCBAs linked by a Flat Flex Cable. The two PCBAs are to be held together by a two-piece plastic part that allows z-axis travel of 1-2 mm to allow for the travel of a PCB-mount tactile switch.
The first PCBA will consist of the touch sensor on one side and the touch controller, its peripheries and a ribbon cable on the other side. Because the whole of one side is the touch sensor, the PCB shall be circular in shape and of a size similar to that of the full radius of a tilted joystick when revolved.
The second PCBA will consist of a connector to mate to the first PCBA, a microcontroller, its peripheries, a connector to fit a FFC that will mate to the Joycon, and a programming header. The PCB shall take the shape of the housing of the joystick so that it may mount to the same holes.
Not an official part of the "product," but for space reasons, it looks like the programming header for this project will be a ZIF connector (just like all the others). This will require a small break-out board so that the lines are accessable to a normal programmer or debugger.