Tailor Made Toys
by F00 f00
NDS Rumble
The finished NDS Rumble mod.
Force feed back for hand-helds is something I’ve been playing with for a number of years now. Since I am now working on consoles full time I have had enough time to get this fully realized.
I decided to go first with the NDS lite as its been a while since I worked on one and rather like them. A psp version will be coming very soon.
Bottom right on this shot is one of the smd LED’s.
How it works.
The NDS has inbuilt support for a rumble pack add-on. This only works for a handful of games and sticks out a few cm from slot one. I wanted this project to not occupy that space and to work for ALL games not just those coded for rumble.
I achieved this by using a micro-controller to read the analogue signal coming from the speakers/headphone socket. This then fires a motor, that has an off-set weight attachment, at increasing intensity in relation to the volume of the sound.
Having tested this method I found that the rumble did match the game play well.
Here’s a short video of the mod in action.
This image shows the installed motor pcb (with green wiring) and above the stylus you can just make out the rumble motor (black area with silver tip).
How to use the mod.
The default state of the mod is for it to be off. To activate it you press the “select button. This lights the orange charge LED, to indicate that the rumble is activated. A second press will make the charge led flash and then activate the LED’s in the base of the unit. These light up whenever the motor vibrates. The two other modes are for a more sensitive audio reading with or without LED lighting. This is for use with headphones or for games that are much quieter.
Bench testing with prototyping board.
The build.
I again used an smd picaxe micro-controller. These are extremely easy to use and are very small. The first stage was to set up a test ds and use my picaxe prototyping board to figure out exactly how this was going to work. Initial testing was pretty positive and after a day or so I had some usable code.
The finished pcb, smallest I’ve made.
The next stage was to prototype a pcb. This took a few revisions as there is very limited space available in an nds lite. The finished board is by far the smallest I have made. The small size actually made the developing process much easier. I will no doubt be using this design in future mods as it is small enough to fit in most hand held devices.
Once installation was complete I added an external serial port for testing. At this point all the code would need to be adjusted as analogue signals are greatly affected by things like breadboards and test wiring.
The finished pcb, smallest I’ve made.
In conclusion I am very happy with this project. The finished mod is easy to use and the added sensation of force-feedback really adds something to the gaming experience. I’d recommend this to anyone.
The rumble mod is available by following this link. Or if you want one exactly as shown here, with the clear parts and the leds go through the tailor made service:).
More info on this mode can be found in the Blog.
I have a DSi being delivered this week so will have a version of this available for that device very soon.
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