Status of Orbshields, 16 Jan 2011

[flauzus]

Vic,



I received both the OrbShield kit and the Seeeduino V2.21 (Atmega 168P) and proceeded to assemble with the help of a friend. The Assembly of the OrbShield went smoothly. Finding and configuring the drivers from Auduino took us a little longer to figure out but we were successful. We programmed the Seeduino using the basic orb sketch that I cut and pasted from the web site and edited for the Spaceball 4000 FLX. The Spaceball showed up as a game controller in Windows with support for all 6 axis and 12 buttons. I then tested it in both the D1X-Rebirth and D2X-Rebirth ports of Descent. Descent did recognize the controller and I could assign movements to all 6 axis and 12 buttons without any problems. I will need to experiment with the Sensitivity and Gain options to get the optimum performance.



Overall you have done a fantastic job and I thank you!



I do have a question that you may be able to answer. There are 2 switches on the Seeduino board labeled "5V" and "Auto" with additional labels of "RST" and "VCC"



[img]http://garden.seeedstudio.com/images/e/eb/Seeeduino_fritzing.png[/img]



We could not determine the function of these switches. Currently the switches are in the as delivered settings with the switch labeled "Auto" positioned away from ""RST" and the switch labeled "5V" positioned toward "VCC". The unit seems to be performing as desired so we left them alone. Would you happen to know if there is any significance of these settings regarding the use of the OrbShield or the programming of the Seeeduino?



Thanks again.

[vputz]

Flauzus--



Glad it worked great for you and you like it!



The switches you're talking about on the seeduino shouldn't be too much of a worry. The VCC switch is 5v/3.3v in case you wanted to operate your seeduino on 3.3v instead of 5v. Leave it in 5v, since you'll be powering it off the 5v USB bus. As for the reset switch, leave it in "auto" (so it will automatically reset when programming it); it's just there in case you want to disable the auto-reset.



Good luck with the Spaceball! I find for some games the combination of spaceball/mouse is actually pretty effective. Fun stuff!

[silentguy]

Wanted to post that I ordered and built an Orb Shield V1.0 in March 2012.



Got the kit in about 2 weeks, and built in 1 hour.



Got everything working, my challenges were mostly COM port related, as well as Key Button mappings.



I posted in another thread my tips.



Thanks to Vic Putz for the Orb Shield, it's great.

[vputz]

Glad you like it and that it works well! Let me know if it starts giving you any problems, but good to know they're still working for most folks. I've murmured about it before, but maybe expect a redesign in late 2012 after the new Arduino comes out (won't change much but will be a little simpler).