Project overview

Developed during a 24-hour school hackathon, this project's goal was to address the needs of users with limited mobility by creating a highly customizable USB game controller. The focus was on allowing easy integration of various sensors tailored to individual accessibility requirements.

Timeline

1 Day

Team

2 Electrical Engineers

Role

Lead Engineer

Components

USB Protocol

‍

Awards

1st Place BU Hardware Hackathon 2024

STATUS

Complete

Tools

Onshape

3D Printing

Arduino IDE

Design Process

The core mechanical component was a custom 3D-printed mount, designed within the 24-hour hackathon timeframe. This mount was specifically shaped to securely attach to a standard Logitech controller base and featured versatile attachment points (slots, screw holes) allowing various external accessibility sensors (touchpads, sliders, buttons, etc.) to be added and positioned according to user needs.

3D Render/CAD

Software / Electronics

The system was built around the RP2040 microcontroller. It integrated inputs from diverse sensors chosen for accessibility needs. The TinyUSB library was used to configure the RP2040 as a USB Human Interface Device (HID), allowing it to be recognized as a standard controller by computers. The RP2040's dual cores were utilized, likely dedicating one to USB communication and the other to sensor polling and processing. A key software innovation was the implementation of a custom, bit-banged USB protocol to handle additional data flow (likely sensor configuration or raw data) alongside the standard HID communication, overcoming the RP2040's single hardware USB controller limitation.

Electronics

SOFTWARE

Challenges

The extreme time constraint of the 24-hour hackathon was a major challenge. Designing and printing a functional, adaptable sensor mount quickly was difficult. Integrating and managing inputs from a potentially wide array of different sensor types required flexible software. The most significant technical challenge was implementing the custom bit-banged USB controller alongside the standard HID functionality on the single RP2040 USB peripheral to manage the required bidirectional data flow effectively.

MEDIA

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