sethmeisterg’s Profile

ALL: Please email me at rbusbadapter -at- gmail.com for details on pricing.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Posted on forums:

I just received Seth's adapter yesterday for my PS3. After a little configuration with my DD602 electronic kit I got everything working. I have a set of computer speakers plugged into the drum set as well so I can hear the "real" playing along with the game.

Seth - What an amazing little device you have created! It's all plug and play and so full of optional settings and configuration save slots it's rediculous!

For anyone that thinks they're an amazing drum player on RB, RB2, GHWT or RR I DARE you to get a real kit and use Seth's adapter!

This thing really exposes how forgiving the game is. Flawless in the game is definitely not flawless in the real world. Being able to hear what you're playing is an amazing experience. When you have it perfect it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. LOL. When it isn't perfect you know it right away.

Thanks Seth, you really brought the game to a whole new level for me and my friends that are RB drummers!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Please email me at rbusbadapter at gmail dot com. I try to check my inbox often, but I really closely monitor the gmail account!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

After a number of requests from rockers wanting to use my adapter with the Wii, I bought the game and a drum controller. Well, I received them today and I'm pleased to say that I was able to get my adapter working with the Wii. I've completed my testing and there are no lag issues (since there are some minor differences between the way the Wii's drum controller communicates with the console compared to the Playstation version of the game+controller, I had to make some tweaks in my firmware), but it's looking fantastic. I'm using the existing hardware design of my adapter, with a minor change: Since there is no "PS" button on the Wii drum controller, I'm using that button to show the Wii controller number associated with the adapter (e.g. 1, 2, 3, or 4). The LEDs I already had on the adapter make that super easy. I'll post some pictures when I complete a prototype of the Wii version.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Well, I've finally finished it! I was following the thread here and I decided to build a piece of hardware that could do direct translation of electronic drum kit MIDI to USB, instead of requiring folks to rip apart their Rock Band controllers and do a bunch of soldering and programming.

You read that right. You do not need a Rock Band drum kit to use the adapter, just MIDI out from your electronic drum kit.

The adapter shows up as a standard drum controller, and works with the Sony PlayStation(R)2 and Sony PLAYSTATION(R)3. I'm currently looking into doing a XBOX360 version, but its prospects do not look very good because of the tight set of controls that Microsoft has placed on third-party controllers (they require a special chip, that's only distributed under very specific terms, requiring licensing, etc.). It's a bummer that the XBOX360 is such a closed platform in this way, but hey, everyone's gotta make a buck somehow, right?

I built the adapter with 13 buttons -- 4 directional (up/down/left/right), 4 control buttons (triangle/X/square/circle), Start, Select, PLAYSTATION, and MODE.

The Mode button is (obviously) not found on standard PlayStation controllers -- its function on the adapter is to quickly switch between two sets of drum "mappings". By "mapping" I mean the association of an instrument in your electronic drum kit to a specific Rock Band PAD (Green/Blue/Yellow/Red/KICK). The adapter comes with 2 modes that have been preset with the most common mappings. The first (default) mode has hihat (open/closed/hihat pedal) == yellow, first tom (+ its rim!) == yellow, second tom == blue, ride == blue, floor tom1 & floor tom2 == green, crash1/crash2 == green, bass drum == orange (kick), snare (+ its rim!) == red. The second mode (the mode you get when you hit the Mode button once) has the same mappings as the first mode, EXCEPT that the snare == yellow and the hihat == red (first tom is still yellow).

For people who don't like the way I preconfigured the adapter, I've included a setup mode where you can choose your own mappings (and they're remembered when you power off the adapter, too!). All you do to set up your own mappings is to put the adapter into configuration mode (hold down reset, hold down PS, release reset), then hold down the corresponding button (X==Green/Triangle==Yellow/Circle==Red/Square==Blue/UP==Kick) while hitting the edrum instrument. The setting is then saved so that the next time you restart the adapter, the mappings you just set up work perfectly. The flexibility ensures that you can configure the adapter the way YOU want.

Go to my Pictures section to see photos of the second prototype and the production version!

If you're interested, feel free to email me at [rbusbadapter {NOSPAM@/\t@MAPSON} gmail {NOSPAM@dot@MAPSON} com]. (Sorry for the mangling of the address, just remove everything between the "{}", substituting an @ for the first and a dot for the second).

Tuesday, May 27, 2008