The Xbox 360 digital conversion

[ArugulaZ]

I've been talking to RDC about the Dual Shock controller he adapted to work with the Xbox 360, and the conversation shifted to analog thumbsticks. He informed me that each thumbstick on the Xbox 360 joypad use six leads (a Voltage, Wiper, and Ground for each axis) and that the range of resistance for each stick is 0-10K Ohms.

This got me thinking... would it be possible to remove those thumbsticks and replace them with a digital signal, like an Atari 2600 joystick? RDC says yes, and that it can be done fairly easy. He didn't go into specifics, and I've asked him for so much advice already that I'm starting to feel like I'm taking advantage of him. So instead, I'll open this question to the BenHeck community. How would you connect a digital signal to the leads of the analog thumbsticks? This is how I've seen it done with the decades-old Atari 5200, but is there an easier way to do this?

http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/gen_2_5200_adap.html

[marshallh]

Easier? Depends. It can be done with either a basic microcontroller with a built-in DAC or an external stand-alone DAC. Easy if you know how to read a datasheet. How many bits wide is the signal?

[ArugulaZ]

Dunno, to be perfectly honest. I just need one bit for each direction of the left thumbstick, if that helps.