Gravis Game Pad Pro and Perfect 360

[spiffyshoes]

Does any one know how to hook up a Perfect 360 to a gravis game pad pro?  I can get it to work just fine with a microswitched based joystick but for some reason I can't seem to get it to work with a P360.  Any insight would be appreciated.

[AmericanDemon]

Where are you obtaining the 5v from?

[spiffyshoes]

The Red wire coming from the USB port.  As far as I know the 2 black wires are grounds and the green and white wires transmit the joystick signals.

[AmericanDemon]

Did you test it to see if its producing 5v's?

Also have you used this P360 in other projects to insure that its 100% functional?

[spiffyshoes]

Nope I haven't tested it to be certain that it is 5v I was hoping some one else would know that for certain.  I have tested the P360 on a playstation PCB which only supplies 3.5v and it worked fine both before and after trying to hook it up to the gravis pad.

[AmericanDemon]

The Red is supposed to carry 5v.  You should test it w/ a volt meter to see for sure. 

Also, did you try both grounds?

[spiffyshoes]

Try both grounds in what way?  One of the grounds comming from the USB port is a dummy ground and isn't used for anything.  If you try hooking a button up to it nothing happens.  The Gravis Game Pad Pro seems to split the main ground up so that you can't daisy chain one ground to everything.  If you try hookin a button up to the main ground it will look like both the button and a direction on the D-pad are being pressed at the same time.  You can however daisy chain a ground coming from one of the button to all the other buttons and same thing for the directions on the D-Pad.  You can daisy chain the ground from the up dirrection with left,right, and down, but it won't work for any of the action buttons.

[paigeoliver]

Try both grounds in what way?  One of the grounds comming from the USB port is a dummy ground and isn't used for anything.  If you try hooking a button up to it nothing happens.  The Gravis Game Pad Pro seems to split the main ground up so that you can't daisy chain one ground to everything.  If you try hookin a button up to the main ground it will look like both the button and a direction on the D-pad are being pressed at the same time.  You can however daisy chain a ground coming from one of the button to all the other buttons and same thing for the directions on the D-Pad.  You can daisy chain the ground from the up dirrection with left,right, and down, but it won't work for any of the action buttons.

The split grounds on the gamepad pro are the exact reason why you CAN'T use a p360 with it.

Anyway, throw that gamepad pro PCB away, those gamepads have an odd design anomoly that causes problems when they are hacked, ghosted and blocked inputs both. They don't do it if you don't hack the dpad, but they do if you do hack it. I spoke to one of the Gravis guys about it like 3 or 4 years ago, it is a known issue.

[spiffyshoes]

Do you think you could give alittle bit more info on the ghosting?  I don't under stand how it could not have a ghosting issue when the pad hasn't been hacked but suddenly have ghosting once you hack it.  It seems like microswitches would provide the exact same signal that the original buttons would have made.  I can see how the split grounds could cause the P360 not to work though.  Can you suggest a better USB game pad to hack that would work with my P360's and still have 10 button inputs?

[paigeoliver]

Do you think you could give alittle bit more info on the ghosting?  I don't under stand how it could not have a ghosting issue when the pad hasn't been hacked but suddenly have ghosting once you hack it.  It seems like microswitches would provide the exact same signal that the original buttons would have made.  I can see how the split grounds could cause the P360 not to work though.  Can you suggest a better USB game pad to hack that would work with my P360's and still have 10 button inputs?

I know it doesn't make any sense, but they really do get funky with the inputs if you hack the D-pad. I know, I hacked 3 of the suckers several years ago, had those problems, searched around, emailed them, and one of the designers knew about that issue. Something about the voltage drop after you extend the length of the connection or something. It is the only gamepad I have ever heard of that does it.

I would actually suggest using 2 playstation pads (if you MUST use gamepads) and then 2 DIFFERENT USB adaptors. If you plug up 2 identical USB items to the computer they will often swap positions randomly on every reboot.

Or, just use an Apac, it appears as 2 joysticks to the computer, and won't have any of the aforementioned problems.

[spiffyshoes]

Ok, thanks.

[Samstag]

I know it doesn't make any sense, but they really do get funky with the inputs if you hack the D-pad. I know, I hacked 3 of the suckers several years ago, had those problems, searched around, emailed them, and one of the designers knew about that issue. Something about the voltage drop after you extend the length of the connection or something. It is the only gamepad I have ever heard of that does it.

It sounds like you need resistance in the circuit.