PC Engine 6 button controller

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pbj:
Okay, I assembled a new PCB. I left off U3 and U4. I cut the traces as indicated on your revised schematic, and added the jumper wire from pin 1 of U1 to SEL on the output. J2, J3, J5, and J6 all set to pins 1 and 2 closed.

Everything working perfectly in 2 button mode. I can control the Everdrive menu and make the morally upstanding women of Strip Fighter move around and fight.

:applaud: :applaud:

So now what?

EDIT:

WOO HOO!

Installed sockets for U3 and U4, figured what the heck. First I installed U4 - the SN74HC163N. Games would recognize that I was toggling between 2 and 6 button mode but obviously weren't getting any six button inputs. Then I stuck in U3.

With the cuts to the traces and the jumper wires added, I am happy to report I am 100% working in both 2 and 6 button mode in SF2 and Strip Fighter. Everdrive navigation working in either mode. I can boot up to the CD menu and not have it jam select inputs over and over. Rondo doesn't control correctly in six button mode, but he's not getting slammed with random inputs. Plays fine in 2 button. (I doubt very highly that game was programmed to work correctly with a six button controller, many of them aren't)

I will go back and double check my work on the previous 2 PCBs... or just bury them in a lonely field for closure and move on with life.

Many thanks to you both, pdco_arcade and mourix. If I can make one more ask... would either of you be able to revise the PCB layout with the alteration to the Select / SEL lines so I can get it printed without needing jumper wires and cut traces? (It would also be nice if J2/J3 and J5/J6 were slightly spread further apart, I’m having to shave my JST connectors..)

:cheers:

pbj:
Revisited the previous 2 PCBs. Issue with one was that the trace running from Select to SEL wasn't fully cut. It wasn't beeping for continuity but I guess there was juuuuuust enough trace remaining to screw things up. Dragging a knife across that cut a few more times cleared that up.

The other PCB I had directly soldered the cable to the board because my pins and connectors hadn't arrived yet. Cleaned all that up, which had been causing intermittent issues, and did the same thing with really gouging out the trace cuts.

All three are operating correctly now. Really need to invest in some better lighting and magnification at my work station, obviously.

:cheers:

Mike A:
Nice work.

Way to see it through to the end.

:applaud:

pbj:
So now it's time to finish up the joystick. The Rocksoul had 5 buttons up top mounted to a PCB that was screwed into the underside of the control panel. I didn't really want to dick around with cutting traces and adding jumper wires, so I just pulled all that out.

The holes leftover are just slightly too small to fit a 16mm button in. Mike A suggested using a step bit. So I very, very slowly spun it around by hand to widen each hole to 5/8". At that point, the buttons can be jammed in. The end result was clean enough that you could deconvert this joystick back to factory and I don't think you'd really notice anything was different.

I'm waiting on DPDT switches to arrive, the DPST throw won't work for the toggling we need for this PCB. But I'll have I turbo off/on, II turbo off/on, Slow Motion off/on, and Mode A / B toggles. The LEDs always stay on with these buttons, so I figure I'll use the 5 button to toggle the 5V line to all the LEDs. Or just plug it. Whatever.

That being said, if you tie together the jumpers for mode B (six button), and then add the jumper for mode A, the system will go back to recognizing it as a 2 button controller. It's inelegant but will work for while I wait for the proper buttons to arrive.

So here it is with a 16mm DPST switch installed to toggle it between 2 and 6 button mode.

pbj:
And while I’m talking to myself and making feature requests, it would be really really awesome if that 15 pin connector for inputs was split out into two 8 pins. I cannot find a 15 pin JST plug for the life of me. Even if the 16th pin did nothing, 8 pin connectors are plentiful and cheap. As it is, I’m going to have to take a bench grinder to the ones I have to get the edges narrow enough to line them up.

:cheers:

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