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  • Ben Heck delivers holiday cheer to gamer with modded macro controller

    by 
    Terrence O'Brien
    Terrence O'Brien
    12.21.2011

    Benjamin J. Heckendorn is no stranger to game pads designed for people with disabilities, but the macro controller he just whipped up for Patrick Crowley (pictured above) might be his most impressive accessibility hack yet. On the latest episode of his show the modding extraordinaire crafts a breakout box that allows a complex set of commands to be triggered with just the touch of a button or foot switch. The box at the heart of the project is powered by a PIC microcontroller that takes inputs from a series of modular switches (up to eight) and turns them into virtual button presses that are fed to an Xbox 360 through a standard controller. In addition to being able to swap in eight different inputs, each one can be programmed to perform a different macro. We won't ruin all of the fun -- check out the PR and full episode in the source link to watch everything from Ben Heck's holiday epiphany through the final testing.