Looking for help with a Quasicon game controller

[quad04]

Good day, often lurker, first time poster.

I am looking for help with a Quasicon control center that I bought from Quasimoto back some years back.
I used this for years with a PS2 and some arcade classics discs, worked great, love this control rig.
My PS2 is now broken and I decided I want to use this setup with MAME on a PC.

I ordered (see attached pic) cables to run to the PC from Quasimoto when they were still in business, knowing I wanted to do this at some point. I asked for a cable that will attach to a windows PC, they sent a cable that is a db15 serial cable to USB that fits the ports on the back of the unit AOK.

When I hook up to the windows 7 PC, it recognized it as only an HID game controller, not the Quasicon like in the image attached(not my image).  The controls do not work when I go in and test them via controller properties or show up like in the properties image attached. (also not my image) The cable looks like a 15 pin parallel cable to USB with a black small box in the middle of the cable. The cable itself has a tag attached that says "For PS3".

I cannot even start the MAME control setup as it is like the PC does not recognize the controls, even though it shows HID controller in devices.

Am I missing a driver? Could it be the cable? I reached out to the original owner of Quasimoto via facebook to see if he had any ideas, but I know that is a long shot.

For reference I found a site that showed a successful driver-less setup in a review. So  I thought this would be a snap. This is where two of the posted images are from.
http://www.1emulation.com/forums/topic/23892-1092007-quasicon-2-player-arcade-stick-review/

Thanks much for any help.

[SavannahLion]

After a lot of thought and perusal of the article, I've come up with a potential answer.

The 15 pin D-SUB to USB struck me as a strange choice until I realized that the pinout probably set the behavior of the controller. The black box on the cable is just a magnet to supress EMI. The real magic is inside the 15 pin connector. He probably set it up one of three ways or some combination of them.

The most obvious is that the pins are grouped for their functions. 2 set aside for USB PC, then clusters for PS1/PS2, Xbox, GCN, etc.  But this is a poor choice for future proofing.

Alternatively, two or three lines are set aside for a small IC inside the D-sub shell that transfers config information about that specific cable. Conceivably, this technique can be use to update internal firmware. The ulimate in futureproofing for entirely new consoles with radically new interfaces. This is expensive though and customers might balk at the higher cable prices.

An intermediate solution is to set aside a collection of pins and simply jump them to change the I/O behavior. For 4 pins with binary logic will net you 16 possible configurations. Using ternary, that goes up to 81. With his love for analog I/O, I absolutely see a possibility for even more configurations just from 4 pins.

All of the above jive with my assumption, you need the PC cable, not the PS3. The hint is in the article you cite, the box comes with, amongst other cables, a USB PC cable yet mentions that the PS3 is forthcoming and can be ordered. The next hint is your mention that the cable you have is labeled as PS3. Why not PS3/PC? Same damn connector right? Go back to the article. It mentions that the analog controls are only available with the consoles that support it eg, PS2. It explicitly mentions that the PC cable disables the analog functions and to regain it back a PS2 adapter must be used.

Logically, since nearly all my PS3 games require the analog, it stands to reason the PS3 cable activates the analog function which Windows does not like or understand. Whereas the PC cable does not. Therefor both cables have a different pinout on the 15 pin side.

You need the PC cable or reverse engineer the pinout and make your own cable.

[quad04]

SavannahLion, thanks very much for the reply and detailed answer.
I am fairly new to this, so the explanation you provided really helps.
I reread, the article I posted, and now thanks to you it makes sense.

So I am left with trying to find a male db15 to usb cable, which thus far I have not been able to find online. Do they even exist?
I know Quasimoto had them, but perhaps they were custom made? I wish they were still in business.

I also do still have the db15 to ps2 cable that I used with my PS2.  Is this something that could somehow work with the PC and perhaps retain all buttons working?

Since now I know that start and select will not work with the PC, and I may not be able to find a cable, should I just look for an alternative?

Such as the x-arcade?  I really want a controller like this to run on PC with MAME, and just want it to be plug and play and work.
Is this the right path?

Thanks much for any replies.

[SavannahLion]

A D-sub to USB is unquestionably custom made. Even if you manage to find such a cable, unless it was made specifically for this, it won't work.

This isn't uncommon really. I have used D sub connectors with custom pinnings (as well as many people here) to take advantage of the cabling on the market. And making your own requires only the most basic soldering skills.

Your best bet is to contact the creator. If he won't make a new cable (don't blame him), he can hopefully give you the pinout and what makes it a "PC cable". Hopefully he didn't go down the custom IC inside the cable, that can be a nasty can of worms. Go Google the Gamecube Component Cable for the worst case scenario. It's so rare it can be worth more than the console it's for.

You might be able to hit up another Quasicon owner for their PC cable (ebay?) or convince someone to reverse engineer the cable so you can build your own.

Since you admit to not being very technical, I'll skip other alternatives.

That leaves a PS2 to USB adapter, as was mentioned in the article. Not sure where you can get one anymore as all my usual sources dried up. PS3 is *supposed* to work on PC direct, but I've never been successful. Damn PS3 controller won't even go through a charge cycle.

 Key thing to worry about here is compatibility with Win7 and later. Microsoft has gotten anal lately.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Here's your solution:
https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141930.msg1469150.html#msg1469150

There a guy here on the forums (Gravity123) who is the founder and goes by a new company called Rowdy Monkeys.  You can order the cable here by contacting him and requesting a price:  http://rowdy-monkeys.myshopify.com/collections/all

Hope this helps!

DeLuSioNaL29

[quad04]

Well thanks to you both very much. I will reach out to Rowdy Monkeys and restart from there.
Much appreciated, this forum is great.

On that note, any recommendations on a front end? 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Try MGalaxy to start:  http://mgalaxy.com/

D

[Typefighter01]

+1 on MGalaxy...I literally had it running in less than 10 minutes. Good front end to get your feet wet.

[SavannahLion]

Here's your solution:
https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141930.msg1469150.html#msg1469150

.......

Hope this helps!

DeLuSioNaL29

What the hell? Anyone else getting cockblocked by their browser clicking on this link?

[PL1]

Here's your solution:
https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141930.msg1469150.html#msg1469150

.......

Hope this helps!

DeLuSioNaL29

What the hell? Anyone else getting cockblocked by their browser clicking on this link?

Here's a working link -- looks like it was the "https".

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141930.msg1469150.html#msg1469150


Scott

[quad04]

Hello all, small update, messaged rowdy monkeys, no word back yet so I started digging.

I found a driver for Ps3 controllers and made the assumption that is what the cable I have is designed for.

After many different attempts I stumbled upon this gem of an article.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/how-to-connect-a-ps3-controller-to-a-pc/

It details using MotioninJoy drivers and the Better Ds3 tool.
I am very happy to say it worked, and I am actually able to use all digital and analog buttons and sticks, and Hyperspin and Mame both see the controls and map AOK. Still experimenting, but I have made it much further than I thought I would.

MGalaxy did not see my controller in any fashion, I read it does not support playstation based controllers.
Is this true? I really like the interface.

Thanks much for the assistance, hopefully this will help others with similar issue.

[Miannatto]

Any chance the quasicon ps2 adapters are still available?