Al, If I understand what you're thinking, you'd need to use the microcontroller in a completely different way to how I'm using it. It would probably be possible though.
Wich - definitely cheating :naughty
Besides, I hate br's enough as it is... :p
___________________________
I've done mk1.1 - with an external adjustment pot. Picture here. There's no knob because I don't have any knobs :p but the lower couple does mean accidental adjustements are less likely.
I've also adjusted the code to double the serial interface speed with the negcon. This does mean my dualshock doesn't work anymore. I should do some testing to see whether the increased SPI speed is actually beneficial, but in the end I expect I'll just chuck the code for interfacing the standard pad! I could optimise the code a bit more if I do that.