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Message board offers cash reward to the developer of 360 chatpad driver

S

SuperAngelo64

Banned
After searching high and low for PC drivers for the 360 chatpad I ran across this relatively recent thread on MP3car.com

Current donation pot is: $595 USD (UPDATED: Nov 10th 2010)

The Goal- To create an open-souce, fully functional set of drivers for the Xbox 360 Controller to utilize the Chatpad peripheral accurately to work on Windows computers. There is a Paypal donation link provided, and the winner of this contest will get the full purse. MP3Car has voluntarily gestured to start the bank with $25, and they have pledged to pay any associated paypal fees; this ensures the winner will get the entire donated amount.

The Rules (not completely revised yet, we need quick feedback to get them perfect)-

1. Driver must be open source
2. Driver must install in windows XP, Vista and Win7
3. Xbox Chatpad must work like a regular keyboard in Windows.
4. Driver must install along with or completely replace the original Xbox drivers, and must not effect the original function of the controller in any way. This can be accomplished by re-writing the original drivers, or having a one-click accessible add-on activate on top of the working original drivers when wanted.
5. The first member to post working drivers in this thread will be the winner. This winner must be accepted by the majority of the participants, for quality of product and authenticity of workmanship.
Click to expand...

and here's a link

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/har...89-contest-xbox-chatpad-driver-challenge.html

I know there are a ton of the tech-savvy programmer types here on GAF. I don't know how difficult something like this is, but 150 bucks is a nice chunk of cash.



Mods, please go ahead and lock this thread if stuff like this isn't allowed.
 
M

MDJCM

Member
SuperAngelo64 said:
Which guy? Their website is handling the pot, I doubt they'd want to shift the donations over.
Click to expand...

I meant, get some rallying going here about it and get GAF members invloved
 
J

jorma

is now taking requests
SuperAngelo64 said:
I know there are a ton of the tech-savvy programmer types here on GAF. I don't know how difficult something like this is, but 150 bucks is a nice chunk of cash.
Click to expand...

Indeed, nearly enough to finance a developer for two hours.
 
L

liquidlogan

Banned
Aselith said:
Why the fuck would you use a chatpad with PC?
Click to expand...

Maybe if you are setting up the machine to run emulators and want to minimize bulk? I don't know. I'm not sure why anyone would care other than for the challenge of it all.
 
Z

Zenith

Banned
had to google what it was.

chatpad.jpg


You have a mouse and keyboard and you're actually willing to pay to use this instead?
 
K

Kamakazie!

Member
I'd rather someone sort out proper configurable drivers for the WIRELESS pads first like the ones that can be found for the usb pads :(
 
B

bloodforge

Member
I've been hoping someone would do this. I have my PC hooked up to my tv, it would be much easier to just use a controller with the chatpad as my mouse/keyboard than to have to keep my big keyboard nearby all the time.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
jorma said:
Indeed, nearly enough to finance a developer for two hours.
Click to expand...
You make $156,000 a year as a developer? :/

*edit* It sounds like fun to try it, but I'd have to spend like $30 to buy the thing to begin with. :lol
 
J

jorma

is now taking requests
Blizzard said:
You make $156,000 a year as a developer? :/

*edit* It sounds like fun to try it, but I'd have to spend like $30 to buy the thing to begin with. :lol
Click to expand...

Hell no. I dont know how you calculated but it's way off.
But 60 euro/hour is still the actual average cost of one hour developer time where i work, around half of it is employer tax. 20-30 euro go towards actual salary and the rest is "other stuff i have no clue about" =)
 
S

Slavik81

Member
Blizzard said:
You make $156,000 a year as a developer? :/

*edit* It sounds like fun to try it, but I'd have to spend like $30 to buy the thing to begin with. :lol
Click to expand...
$75-$100 is more like a rate for contract work.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
jorma said:
Hell no. I dont know how you calculated but it's way off.
But 60 euro/hour is still the actual average cost of one hour developer time where i work, around half of it is employer tax. 20-30 euro go towards actual salary and the rest is "other stuff i have no clue about" =)
Click to expand...
Ah. I was just going $150 / 2 for one hour, times 40 for $3000/week, times 52 for $156,000 a year, pretax. Maybe I misunderstood whoever said $150 would finance a developer for two hours...or maybe that really is the rate for occasional contract work. :p

It looks like some guy already said he would do it a couple of weeks ago so it might be done soon.
 
J

jorma

is now taking requests
Blizzard said:
Ah. I was just going $150 / 2 for one hour, times 40 for $3000/week, times 52 for $156,000 a year, pretax. Maybe I misunderstood whoever said $150 would finance a developer for two hours...or maybe that really is the rate for occasional contract work. :p

It looks like some guy already said he would do it a couple of weeks ago so it might be done soon.
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, originally it was just intended as a faceitious way of saying "no $150 is not really a lot of money for this sort of job" =)
And if say microsoft were to outsource this to some external developer in an entirely hypothetical scenario, that money would be long gone before the coder had even been asked to estimate the cost.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
I almost forgot about this. If I can find one this weekend for $30-35 I might pick it up, but I'd need to also pick up a wireless controller to fully verify it if I got anything working (and I'm not sure how well wireless controllers even work in Windows Vista/Windows 7 -- anyone have any experience?).
 
C

Cmagus

Member
I would love this for final fantasy xiv that way I can sit back when typing kinda lame using controller and then keyboard to type
 
Nose Master

Nose Master

Member
Cmagus said:
I would love this for final fantasy xiv that way I can sit back when typing kinda lame using controller and then keyboard to type
Click to expand...

I bought one for this reason, but for XI. Sucked, though, cause the button to shift the keys to type the "/" character (essential) also made the text disappear in game for screen shots. So, it was shift and... scroll lock?
 
S

SuperAngelo64

Banned
Blizzard said:
I almost forgot about this. If I can find one this weekend for $30-35 I might pick it up, but I'd need to also pick up a wireless controller to fully verify it if I got anything working (and I'm not sure how well wireless controllers even work in Windows Vista/Windows 7 -- anyone have any experience?).
Click to expand...


You can find them used for like 15 bucks these days.
 
W

Walshicus

Member
Zenith said:
had to google what it was.

chatpad.jpg


You have a mouse and keyboard and you're actually willing to pay to use this instead?
Click to expand...
I would. There have been so many instances where this would have been useful to me.
 
onken

onken

Member
Massa said:
Works fine under Linux.
Click to expand...

Really? Works flawlessly in windows for me but total pita under linux. In fact last time I tried 10/14 hunks failed on the kernel patch so I didn't bother. Unless there's some easy way of doing it now that I'm not aware of.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
I got lucky -- GameStop had one (and possibly only one), behind the counter and used so it was only about $20. Someone has probably already practically finished the driver, but I figure it's better I try late than never! It's a cool little peripheral anyway. :)
 
S

SuperAngelo64

Banned
Blizzard said:
I got lucky -- GameStop had one (and possibly only one), behind the counter and used so it was only about $20. Someone has probably already practically finished the driver, but I figure it's better I try late than never! It's a cool little peripheral anyway. :)
Click to expand...

Actually you have a pretty good chance. The reward has been up for months now.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Well, I spent the weekend catching up. I've gone through most everything I can find, and I can now do the same stuff other people have been able to do for like, a year, i.e. turn lights on, read the 360 controller button states, and read one keypress. People did a great job getting that information.

Unfortunately, unless someone gets lucky through experimentation, it basically seems that my problem is this:
1. Some smart guy wrote a Mac OS X driver that now INCLUDES support for the chatpad. People have verified that it works.
2. Said guy releases the source for his drivers, but his last couple of versions have not yet had the source uploaded.
3. Said guy has vanished off of the face of the earth. No one has been able to contact him, he hasn't updated his LiveJournal in a year or two, etc. Maybe he died in a tragic zeppelin accident, who knows.
4. One enterprising user of the car forum got a chatpad, had a Mac, got some (free? See http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa2004/qa1370.html for usbtracer) USB analyzer software, and posted several logs with the chatpad attached and working.
5. Said enterprising user's Mac died, and he is no longer able to help the cause.

UNFORTUNATELY, unless I missed something, he does not seem to have taken and posted an entire capture from when he plugged in the device, to when he actually started using the chatpad. He posted one really long log that stopped short of that point.

We have timed USB logs from the XBox 360 itself using the device, but attempts at emulating them thus far seem to be unsuccessful. It seems to me that one of the best chances of success would be to get the full log from controller initialization to chatpad messages.

Just in case anyone was curious. :lol If anyone has access to a Mac, a 360 controller, and potentially a chatpad, feel free to let me know.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
Blizzard said:
If anyone has access to a Mac, a 360 controller, and potentially a chatpad, feel free to let me know.
Click to expand...

Yup. It's a wired USB Xbox PC controller if that makes/breaks me helping.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Burger said:
Yup. It's a wired USB Xbox PC controller if that makes/breaks me helping.
Click to expand...
Wired is preferable since that's what I have, actually. If the idea of running command-line tools and installing a driver from a .dmg package doesn't terrify you, then I may try to pester you! I'm almost tempted to pick up a cheap used Mac laptop for myself and give it a shot.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
Blizzard said:
Wired is preferable since that's what I have, actually. If the idea of running command-line tools and installing a driver from a .dmg package doesn't terrify you, then I may try to pester you! I'm almost tempted to pick up a cheap used Mac laptop for myself and give it a shot.
Click to expand...

Yeah sweet as, just gimme a write up of instructions and I'll sort it out. I'll be back in about an hour and a half to give it a go.
 
N

NZNova

Member
At the risk of dragging things slightly offtopic: I don't know about getting the MS chatpad to work but if you're purely looking for a convenient keyboard/mouse like input for a HTPC you can't really go past this thing:

GfXFm.jpg
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Burger was awesome and has tried the latest Mac driver from http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver, but unfortunately it only seems to light up the chatpad keys for him and he does not get keyboard input. If anyone else has a Mac, a 360 controller, and a chatpad, let me know. Otherwise I may have to invade other forums to try to find someone, just in case it's an OS/64-bit compatibility thing. At least one user claims the chatpad worked, and it sure hasn't been updated on the Mac since then as far as I can tell.
 
T

Tiduz

Eurogaime
NZNova said:
At the risk of dragging things slightly offtopic: I don't know about getting the MS chatpad to work but if you're purely looking for a convenient keyboard/mouse like input for a HTPC you can't really go past this thing:

GfXFm.jpg
Click to expand...

i use that and the mousepad sucks major monkey balls. have to switch modes for it to act normal etc.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Quick update -- someone has tried it on 10.4 and 10.6 macs, and neither work. It would almost seem like the guy who said it was working on Mac wasn't telling the truth, but he posted detailed logs that make sense, including data that the chatpad was sending. So the conclusion seems to be that the latest 0.09 Mac driver, that supports the chatpad, only fully works on OS X 10.5...MAYBE. :lol The search continues!

Or, I guess there could also be a 32-bit/64-bit issue if OS X 10.5 comes in both flavors. Or it might be specific to PPC vs. Intel for all I know.
 
P

Pooya

Member
SapientWolf said:
Has anyone gotten the Move to work on the PC? That would be the Holy Grail.
Click to expand...
motioninjoy.com was working on it last time I checked, not sure in what state it is right now.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Another day, another update. I should have PowerPC Mac access before too long, but the huge question in front of us is whether the "made-for-Windows" 360 controller, with chatpad attached, works on the 360 itself. I believe noble Burger is going to test it in the next day or two, if no one else does. :)

If the Windows controller, the chatpad, and the 360 result in the chatpad NOT working, it seems like we're very probably screwed. If they do work then yay, we still have a chance. I bring this up because apparently, even on an OS X 10.6 Intel machine, a 360 controller with chatpad works with the driver...as long as the controller is a plain 360 USB one. We're not sure about the Windows-branded ones, and wireless doesn't work.
 
M

Metal Gear?!

Member
The sad thing is that Microsoft could get this done in an hour and roll the drivers into Windows Update and sell a bunch more chatpads but they won't because they actively and passionately hate their own platform
 
S

SuperAngelo64

Banned
Metal Gear?! said:
The sad thing is that Microsoft could get this done in an hour and roll the drivers into Windows Update and sell a bunch more chatpads but they won't because they actively and passionately hate their own platform
Click to expand...


The funny thing is the packaging for the chatpad says something really misleading like "Use for both the Xbox 360 and your PC!", but the fine print says something about how that references the usb controller that you attach it to. I forget what it says specifically though.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Good news, the wired Windows controller DOES work with the chatpad and an actual 360. So it seems like the Mac driver may just not be coded for the Windows controller properly, or else there's some other incompatibility there.
 
D

dangeROSS

Member
I still don't understand why Microsoft doesn't / didn't release any drivers for the chatpad. I just recently started getting into PC gaming, and I use a wired 360 controller. I think it'd be very nifty to have access to a keyboard on my pad while i'm playing, as I'm not next to my PC. Seems Microsoft really can't make up their mind as to how they want to approach PC gaming as a whole.
 
R

RaySpencer

Member
Blizzard said:
Good news, the wired Windows controller DOES work with the chatpad and an actual 360. So it seems like the Mac driver may just not be coded for the Windows controller properly, or else there's some other incompatibility there.
Click to expand...

im confused.


If im reading this correctly, then of course it works, the windows controller and the 360 controller are the exact same controller. why wouldnt they both work on a 360?


I do hope someone gets this to work eventually though! could be so nice for MMOs!
 
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