We'll start by turning the buttons of the game pad into keyboard buttons, so that pressing 'up' is converted into the 'U' key, for example. The firmware is easily adaptable, so you can adjust it for whatever software it will be used with.

Then we'll make the project more interesting by adding an accelerometer. This will allow the game pad to be used as a mouse by tilting it!

This tutorial including the original code and Portal video is by Devlin Thyne! Rock!

What you'll need:

You'll need the following in order to build the project:

• Game Pad Controller - We'll be using an SNES Controller
• Teensy - This is a very small microcontroller board that can act as a keyboard/mouse
• Triple-axis accelerometer - We'll be using the nice ADXL335 on a breakout board. You can skip this if you're not planning to add in the mouse capability
• USB cable with mini-b connector - to attach to the Teensy for plugging into a computer!
• Ribbon cable - for all the soldering connections. Rainbow cable is the easiest to work with as its color coded

If you want to build the entire project, we have a project pack in the shop with all the parts listed above!

You'll also need some basic hand tools such as screwdrivers, wire strippers, soldering iron, solder, diagonal cutters, vise or third hand tool, etc.

All the code is on GitHub, including some extra sketches we've written so be sure to look there!