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There are a few great posts out there on building a wireless Bluetooth e-Controller for Zwift however in my tests I found it was interfering with my Ant+ signal and quite small for my big fingers. I wanted a simple solution so I decided on a hard wired button controller, looking at prices online for a gaming button controller was over $100. I then rummaged through my parts draw looking for a cheaper alternative and found a USB Nintendo controller and and I had the 1st part of my project:
Controller
- Hard Wired – No Interference
- Inexpensive – On E-bay for less than $20
- Big Buttons – Perfect for Big Fingers
The next step was working out how to make this work with Zwift and I found this great application called AntMicro which is a graphical program used to map keyboard buttons and mouse controls to a gamepad. Useful for playing games with no gamepad support which works well for what I needed, Kudos to the developers! This was the 2nd part of the project.
Software
- Ready Available – On the internet
- Inexpensive – FREE Download
- Highly Configurable – Opens possibilities to other projects
The next part of the project was programming, this was easier than I imagined, just plug in the controller and then step through and allocate the various keyboard shortcuts for Zwift that you require. This completes the 3rd part of the project.
Programming
- Power Up – Button A – Space
- Elbow Flick – Button B – F1
- Screen Shot – Button X – F10
- Wave Hand – Button Y – F2
- Look Forward – Up Stick – 1
- Look Back – Down Stick – 6
- Look Left – Left Stick – 4
- Bird’s Eye View – Right Stick – 9
The final part of the project was mounting the controller and labelling the buttons until I memorise them. For mounting the controller I once again rummaged through the parts draw and found a clip-on bicycle mirror which I modified by removing mirror and cutting the surround to fit the controller then hot glued it in place. I also had to super glue the pivot balls as there was too much movement when I pushed the buttons, the super glue fixed that problem.
Mounting and Labelling
By the time I finished this post I had already programmed more functions into the controller which might lead to further ideas, the next revision will be to include shortcuts for OBS Studio so I can change scenes from the controller using a toggle button to change sets to a new button layout.
The final revision as it stands is shown below:
- Set 1 – e-Controller – My Default Layout
- Set 2 – e-Controller 2 – Same as Set 1 except camera views are different
- Set 3 – Team Car – Drone view controlled by joystick for better control
This works very well and the total cost of the project is about $20 Bargain!
I have more posts coming in following days on my other projects.
Johnny Tselikas
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