Can anyone recommend a good USB adapter for the Atari Starwars yoke?

[BazookaJo]

Hi guys

Struggling to keep my Atari StarWars machine up and running - it's age and condition aren't great, and every time I get it fixed, a few months later something else goes wrong, and given I have no electronics skills it's all ££££.

The result is that I'm seriously thinking about converting the cab to a Mame i.e. packing the vector monitor away and running the game via a PC.

So given my limited electronics skills, what would be the easiest way to attach the yoke to a PC for MAME use?

Big thanks in advance

Joe.

[PL1]

So given my limited electronics skills, what would be the easiest way to attach the yoke to a PC for MAME use?

If your skillset doesn't include soldering, consider Ultimarc's A-PAC or U-HID. (not enough pins on the U-HID Nano for the pots, triggers, thumb buttons, and coin switches)

If you can solder, check out this tutorial.

Either way, please consider making a Molex adapter cable (Step 7 of the tutorial) so you don't have to hack the yoke harness to connect to whichever encoder you choose.


Scott

[baritonomarchetto]

The cheapest and flexible way is the use of an arduino leonardo  (or pro micro) board.

Start soldering if you wanna exit the "arcade issues = money loss" tunnel

please do make only reversible mods to your cabinet or you will be sorry about it

[BazookaJo]

Cheers Scott

Those would be ideal and don't worry with, as you say use a molex connector

I'm sure there are cheaper options but if i factor in my time its a bargain...

So given my limited electronics skills, what would be the easiest way to attach the yoke to a PC for MAME use?

If your skillset doesn't include soldering, consider Ultimarc's A-PAC or U-HID. (not enough pins on the U-HID Nano for the pots, triggers, thumb buttons, and coin switches)

If you can solder, check out this tutorial.

Either way, please consider making a Molex adapter cable (Step 7 of the tutorial) so you don't have to hack the yoke harness to connect to whichever encoder you choose.


Scott

[BazookaJo]

That said, is there any advantage of one over the other A-PAC/U-HID/Kadestick i.e. performance-wise?

Cheers Scott

Those would be ideal and don't worry with, as you say use a molex connector

I'm sure there are cheaper options but if i factor in my time its a bargain...

[PL1]

is there any advantage of one over the other A-PAC/U-HID/Kadestick i.e. performance-wise?

Haven't done a side-by-side comparison.   

Haven't had any issues with KADESTICK and haven't read of any issues with A-PAC or U-HID.

There are differences in price and features.

U-HID is more flexible -- it can do gamepad buttons, keystrokes, mouse buttons, etc.

A-PAC and KADESTICK can do gamepad buttons.

If you've got to have keystrokes, you can either get the U-HID or hook up two encoders, analog and keyboard.

If you go with two encoders, that adds U-HID Nano as an option.


Scott