Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller ChatPad potential for a great Windows HTPC Remote

MP3car.com is sponsoring a contest to goad some budding genius to develop a driver to allow the xbox360 controller chatpad to be used as a keyboard in windows. I'm contributing and would be thrilled if anyone ever came up with the goods. It's been 3 years now without anyone being able to do it. Would make for a great HTPC backlit keyboard/controller solution:

Sounds good. It would be great if I can power up/off my HTPC through xbox 360 controller like Xbox and use it for windows login or at boot menu. Do you know if there is some controller or remote control that can do it?

When you use it along with Xpadder you can turn off your PC as though you were sitting in front of it with a mouse and keyboard. You can also bring your PC out of sleep via something like this: http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml

CrazyIvan, it's great that you're promoting this.

Bulkzooi Wrote:CrazyIvan, it's great that you're promoting this.

lol! It's out of pure selfishness to take my HTPC remotes to the next level.

your selfishness will do good to the community as a whole, including me: I am looking for the best way to control XBMC myself and right now I think Iphone or Android remote apps are the best ways to go. Nevertheless, I prefer a dedicated RF remote like this or something lik Boxee remote: http://www.boxee.tv/htdocs/images/logged...remote.jpg

Bulkzooi Wrote:your selfishness will do good to the community as a whole, including me: I am looking for the best way to control XBMC myself and right now I think Iphone or Android remote apps are the best ways to go. Nevertheless, I prefer a dedicated RF remote like this or something lik Boxee remote: http://www.boxee.tv/htdocs/images/logged...remote.jpg

Yep, we use remote apps on our iphone/ipod Touch as well. Having the full keyboard will do wonders for the xbox360 controller solution IMO. The on screen keyboard gets old when doing windows stuff sometimes.

Just a heads up that it seems that some of the participating developers have made great progress on this recently.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.p...607&page=2

Wouldn't be surprised to see something in the not too distant future.

Well folks a major breakthrough in this area occurred over the holidays. A fella named GAFBlizzard just released a working driver and source code via the mp3car forum thread for a wired xbox360 controller with chatpad. The big breakthrough was figuring out the right set of data to send the chatpad at initialization to put it in the correct mode to send keys.

He has set up a Google code project for it here:

http://code.google.com/p/chatpad-super-driver/

As you can see he's has also made the source code (open source MIT license) available. I suspect this will spur on development fo ra wireless version of the driver. Good times and made all the nicer by how classy the developer has been about the prize money.

thanks for the heads-up, I actually like the idea of controlling my HTPC with the wireless controller&chat pad