Splatoon-2-Drawing

Forked from @progmem's Proof-of-Concept Fightstick for the Nintendo Switch. Uses the LUFA library and reverse-engineering of the Pokken Tournament Pro Pad for the Wii U to enable custom built controllers on the Switch System v3.0.0.

image via /u/Stofers

Wait, what?

On June 20, 2017, Nintendo released System Update v3.0.0 for the Nintendo Switch. Along with a number of additional features that were advertised or noted in the changelog, additional hidden features were added. One of those features allows for the use of compatible controllers, such as the Pokken Tournament Pro Pad, to be used on the Nintendo Switch.

Unlike the Wii U, which handles these controllers on a 'per-game' basis, the Switch treats the Pokken controller as if it was a Switch Pro Controller. Along with having the icon for the Pro Controller, it functions just like it in terms of using it in other games, apart from the lack of physical controls such as analog sticks, the buttons for the stick clicks, or other system buttons such as Home or Capture.

For their own personal use, @shinyquagsire23 repurposed Switch-Fightstick to output a set sequence of inputs to systematically print Splatoon posts. This works by using the smallest size pen and D-pad inputs to plot out each pixel one-by-one.

The problem is that installing the compilers can take a really long time, so then @WyseNynja bundled most everything you need inside a docker container. You can install Docker from https://www.docker.com/.

Drawing

Draw your image 320x120 pixel black and white indexed raw image in GIMP.

There is an example GIMP file in the images directory.

The important part is "Image > Mode > Indexed..." and then "Use black and white (1-bit) palette".

1. To save your image, go to File > Export.
2. When exporting, select "Raw image data (*.data)".
3. Save your image wherever is most convenient. You will use this when setting the IMG variable later.
4. Leave RGB type as "Standard" and the indexed palette type as "R, G, B".

Programming

Linux users should be able to compile and upload the program all from docker:

# you must customize this
IMG="/full/path/to/your/AwesomeDrawing.data"

# you might need to customize these
DEV=/dev/ttyUSB0
MCU=at90usb1286

# then copy, paste and run this
docker run --rm -it \
    --env "MCU=$MCU" \
    --env PROGRAM=1 \
    --device="$DEV" \
    -v "$IMG:/input.data" \
    bwstitt/splatoon-2-drawing

OS X and Docker and USB don't get along, so you will need to do things a little differently than on Linux.

Install teensy_loader_cli from Homebrew (with brew install teensy_loader_cli) or hid_bootloader_cli from LUFA. Then run commands like these:

# you must customize these
IMG="/full/path/to/your/AwesomeDrawing.data"
OUTPUT=AwesomeDrawing

# you might need to customize these
MCU=at90usb1286
TARGET=$(pwd)/target
LOADER=teensy_loader_cli

# then copy, paste and run this
docker run --rm -it \
    --env "MCU=$MCU" \
    -v "$IMG:/input.data" \
    --env "OUTPUT=$OUTPUT" \
    -v "$TARGET:/target" \
    bwstitt/splatoon-2-drawing \
&& $LOADER -w -n -v -mmcu=$MCU $TARGET/$OUTPUT.hex

I have no idea about how to do this on Windows. Pull requests are welcome.

Printing Procedure

1. Use the analog stick to bring the cursor to the top-right corner of an empty drawing.
2. Ensure the smallest pen size is selected.
3. Press the D-pad down once to make sure the cursor is at y-position 0 instead of y-position -1.
4. Plug in the custom controller to the USB-C port.
5. Wait. Printing currently takes about an hour. Each line is printed from right to left in order to avoid pixel skipping issues.

Known Issues

• There are issues with controller conflicts while in docked mode which are avoided by using a USB-C to USB-A adapter in handheld mode.
• There are also issues printing to the right and bottom edges.

Plans

• Automatic image setup (clear the canvas, move to the correct position, set the correct pen size, etc.)
• Faster printing
• More sample images