Building a classic controller adapter for my cab

[DarkDraco]

Ive been working on a cab in my free time and its pretty much complete except that i dont have a control panel and a bezel yet. if your interested, heres a link to a page i made for the cab.

http://www.darknemesis.com/projects/mamecab/

reason i am posting here is because i had an idea that i wanted to put to work. i am having trouble planning the circuit work for my idea.

currently im gathering up money to get a slikstik quad unit. the quad unit will be working with my mame games. this leads to my 1st question, is slikstik quad a usb or ps/2 connection?

main idea: under the control panel, i want to cut out a hole (normally where the coin slots go) and place 2 sets of adapter. Player1&2 NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PSX female adapters for easy plug-n-play controllers to play emulators. knowing how USB controllers arent static, i figured that everytime i would boot up the controller order would get screwy so i thought that for each usb cable i will cut it and add a switch/button to activate/deactivate the controllers i want to use. that way it would be easier to setup and not have a bunch of none working controller slots. i have everything planned out and ready and my only issue is making the adapters. i looked online for schematics and i see alot for LPT1 port adapters. i came across a site called retrozone and had the perfect adapters i needed like this one http://www.retrousb.com/images/retroport1_large.jpg
but the problem is they are 22$ each and i will need 6 of them. was wondering if anyone knew of a cheaper way to build/buy for a cheaper price. i also came across the Boom n64/psx adapter which some people found buggy. im planning on ordering one to see if the 2 female plugs on the adapter are soldered to the board or wired. if they are soldered i will have to desolder them and extend the lead to be abled to put on the cab.

if any of what i said was unclear just reply and let me know and ill try to clear it up.

[leapinlew]

Ive been working on a cab in my free time and its pretty much complete except that i dont have a control panel

Ha! Thats a funny quote. 

currently im gathering up money to get a slikstik quad unit. the quad unit will be working with my mame games. this leads to my 1st question, is slikstik quad a usb or ps/2 connection?

The one I saw used an Ipac4 USB connection. The important thing to know is the Ipac registers as a keyboard.

main idea: under the control panel, i want to cut out a hole (normally where the coin slots go) and place 2 sets of adapter. Player1&2 NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PSX female adapters for easy plug-n-play controllers to play emulators. knowing how USB controllers arent static, i figured that everytime i would boot up the controller order would get screwy so i thought that for each usb cable i will cut it and add a switch/button to activate/deactivate the controllers i want to use.

Couldn't you just use the control panel with your joysticks and buttons to play these games?

[DarkDraco]

main idea: under the control panel, i want to cut out a hole (normally where the coin slots go) and place 2 sets of adapter. Player1&2 NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PSX female adapters for easy plug-n-play controllers to play emulators. knowing how USB controllers arent static, i figured that everytime i would boot up the controller order would get screwy so i thought that for each usb cable i will cut it and add a switch/button to activate/deactivate the controllers i want to use.

Couldn't you just use the control panel with your joysticks and buttons to play these games?
[/quote]
yes i could but i like to have the semi-authentic feeling of plugging in an original un-altered controller and using it to play games the way they were meant to be played. im sure friends playing my cab would enjoy this too as it brings back memories. it will also cut back on the "i lost because i play better with a real controller" complaint

[leapinlew]

I understand.

I ask because from an authenticity stand point - playing a console game in a video cabinet isn't that authentic. I didn't put consoles on any of my cabinets because when I play a game of Combat, or Zelda I want to be sitting on the couch. The controls don't bother me so much - I'm using a hacked xbox now and it's doing the job.

[DarkDraco]

i dont recall ever using parallel port for anything. was wondering if i made and connected a parallel port adapter and powered the system on, if it would read a controller that i plug in after the OS has booted. from what i remember all the older ports required a device to be connected while booting the system for it to work

[leapinlew]

i dont recall ever using parallel port for anything. was wondering if i made and connected a parallel port adapter and powered the system on, if it would read a controller that i plug in after the OS has booted. from what i remember all the older ports required a device to be connected while booting the system for it to work

You never used a parallel port? Most older printers were connected to the parallel port. From what I remember, all the older ports didn't need a device connected on bootup. You can change printers on the fly, as well as many serial devices.

I'm not sure I've ever seen the parallel port used as an actual interface for controllers though. It's a pretty slow port.

[DarkDraco]

so ill be fine if i make a parallel port adapter for NES/SNES and disconnect/reconnect controllers?
if so, it seems NES and SNES controllers are identical when it comes to wiring for the adapters. so my next question is, can i use the SNES 4 controller schematics :
http://www.tolaris.com/snes-to-parallel/img/snes-to-parallel%20circuit.png
and change 2 of them to NES so ill end up with 2xNES and 2xSNES. i would think so

[DarkDraco]

jsut spent the whole day trying to get the NES/SNES parallel port to work and its a no go. i checked multiple time and all the wiring is correct and there are no wires touching. cant get 2 PCs to read a single NES or SNES controller. i read up a bit and noticed some controllers my need additional voltage and even added a 5v power source and still no go... whats going on

[daywane]

I have never played with the controlls the way you are going about it. but
I know about them.
did you down load the driver?
I did not see in your posts about loading the driver

[DarkDraco]

i loaded 2 different drivers one is psxp and the other is NTpad and neither can read my buttons. without my usb cable connected it says my button8 is pressed and when i plug in the USB it says 1,2,9,10 and being pressed. im guessing im either getting not enough juice without the usb or im getting too much with the USB. i tested the adapter with NES and SNES joypad and neither work

[DarkDraco]

just disables force feedback and snes works ^_^
now to add another SNES and 2 NES lines

[steveh]

if you want to use original controllers for the emulators your best bet its to visit this site:  http://retrousb.com/

I have purchased the kits for my genesis controlers and i can say they work great.  they sell the adapters (plug directly to usb) as well as the kits to mod an existing controller to usb.  well worth it.

[DarkDraco]

if you want to use original controllers for the emulators your best bet its to visit this site:  http://retrousb.com/

I have purchased the kits for my genesis controlers and i can say they work great.  they sell the adapters (plug directly to usb) as well as the kits to mod an existing controller to usb.  well worth it.

yea i came across that site but i wanted to be able to use un-altered controllers for the cab because i have the original console as well so sharing the controllers would of been nice. also if someone wanted to use their own controller, they could just plug it in. problem with modifying a controller is if it ever break it will be harder to replace and re-mod it than just getting another original. so far i got the 2xNES and 2xSNES ports working properly for about 5$ and saved myself from spending 22$ for each adapter.

since my parallel port is now used up i might have to buy the USB adapters for genesis. shame that the controller plugs perfectly into serial port but cant mod it to work.

also ordered an N64/PSX boom adapter to desolder the female connectors and extend the leads. hopefully my shipment arrives by friday so i can get to work.

[steveh]

from what i read on this forum.  for the n64 you really want the adaptoid.  do a search here to see the difference.

[DarkDraco]

yea i was lookin at the adaptoid and the cheapest one i found was like 25$+7$ shipping on ebay. it has nice features being able to use the memory card slots but i wont be using that. then i came across the boom adapter. i read some people say the analog on psx is jittery on some models but i ordered one for 10$ to test it out.60ish$ for 2 n64 adapters are a bit out of budget. im still trying to save up for the slikstik quad

[steveh]

I hear you on that.  I picked up 2 of those ps1/n64 adapters a long time ago.  I have never really used the 64 part of it.  but i plan on it when i get my cab built.

[DarkDraco]

yea main reason i wanted n64 was cuz i was playin some old games the other day and was having trouble with the PSX controller layout on n64. i needed the N64 controller. kind hard to set the C buttons as the L1 L2 R1 R2 and Z button somewhere else.

[steveh]

i have always felt it is better to play the games on the controllers they were designed for.   especially odd controllers like the n64

[DarkDraco]

the Boom adapter came in and the PSX adapter work perfect. cant say the same for N64. in the controller test page it looks as if a kid is beat the crap out of it. controller is going in all directions and all the buttons are being hit randomly. searching the web for a fix and seems its not possible. anyone here know a fix?

[DarkDraco]

i found out some juicy info on how to n64/psx adapter works and why the n64 is buggy. i was playing around and found out the current info on my own.

the wiring for the PS adapter part effects how the n64 part works. i tested the adapter set on N64 with different PS controllers plugged into the port and found out it effected the n64 differently. i ran into 1 3rd party PSX controller that when plugged in, the N64 works PERFECTLY. so i mess around with the controller to see what caused this so see if i can make a psx plug adapter to plug in if im using the N64 port. so i take note of which wire is which pin and cut the controller cord (controller was broken anyways). i come to this conclusion... the type of wire used makes a difference depending on what type of n64 controller your using. (i did all my tests with the normal grey n64 controller.) so connecting pins 4,6,9 together and connecting all the rest together on the PSX port made the N64 work! but wait... i have the wires secured nice and tight but when i let go of the wires the controller starts to act up very slightly. for some reason when i hold onto the wires i get a stable reading and when i let go it gets slightly jittery.

so my question is why is me holding the wires giving me a better signal? and how can i make this permanent by using other electronic stuff.

[steveh]

Are the wires soldered or not?  maybe you holding them makes a better connection, and when you release the cables are too loose to make a good connection.