Gorf Joysticks.

[SavannahLion]

Got a hold of a couple of Gorf sticks in need of rebuilding. It seems the previous owner(s) might have done a half-hearted attempt on at least one of them, but it appears to be salvageable. Some new screws, springs, soldering, etc. One of the control boards has a ~1" crack on the corner near the IC. It looks like the crack runs through the ground plane and I can jumper the cracked trace. I won't know until I test it.

I managed to locate the pinout and it looks pretty basic, U/D/L/R/Ground/+5v. And reading the datasheet on the IC, it seems pretty straight forward. However, I've never actually given much thought to the signal levels/types on the control boards like the Ipac or KeyWiz.

Is it possible to easily interface the joystick control board with something like the Ipac or Keywiz? Or is there some kind of painful adapter circuitry involved? I've seen quite a few projects mention using Gorf or similar joysticks, but they all seem to use the Tron or similarly switched base.

The other Q is, are the parts from Happs Heavy Duty 8-Way Trigger Joystick compatible with the Gorf joystick? Specifically the rubber grommit 96-4550-01. Both of mine have some cracking so I don't know if they're any good.

Edit: Clarified question

[MinerAl]

I know the handle of a Gorf stick is the same as the Happ HD, and I believe the structure of the base is the same as well. 

That said, the only Gorf sticks I have are from the cocktail and are switches.

If you post close up pics of the base (and later maybe add them to the Tron sticks page on the Wiki) I may be able to help more.

[SavannahLion]

If you post close up pics of the base (and later maybe add them to the Tron sticks page on the Wiki) I may be able to help more.

Sure, I'll give it a shot. You think the control board can constitute its own page?

[MinerAl]

Why not?  If it will help somebody later on, definitely!

[SavannahLion]

Alright, I'll give it a shot. I figured out the schematic and the IC on there. Some weirdness here and there but I think I understand why Bally built a board like that.  I'll need some other parts though, namely an Ipac* or *Wiz to play with, the rest I'll try to scrounge tomorrow from HSC or something. Maybe I'll get really lucky and find a 5v DC wallwart there so I won't have to set up the PC PSU.

[SavannahLion]

Here it is.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/GORF_joystick

I cut out about half of the information I have. I decided it wasn't a good idea to give a lot of technical information without actually confirming them myself. I won't be able to put in any technical updates until after I order a control interface board from Ultimarc or GGG. 

[RandyT]

If you can, put some power to the stick, and measure with an ohm-meter the voltage between GROUND and one of the direction outputs with the stick at center position.  Then do it again with the output you are measuring activated.  If you see 5v DC at center positions and close to 0v DC when it's activated, then it works just like a standard P360 and can be used withe a KeyWiz, GP-Wiz, whathaveyou...

I'm not sure what is happening with the trigger switch, but you can test it the same way with your ohm meter.

RandyT

[MinerAl]

Wow!

Good job.

Thanks

[SavannahLion]

If you can, put some power to the stick, and measure with an ohm-meter the voltage between GROUND and one of the direction outputs with the stick at center position.  Then do it again with the output you are measuring activated.  If you see 5v DC at center positions and close to 0v DC when it's activated, then it works just like a standard P360 and can be used withe a KeyWiz, GP-Wiz, whathaveyou...

Got my notes. The pins are held almost at 0v when active and at +5v when inactive.  I need to refer to my notes. But I do recall that when a direction is activated, that pin is held to ground. I think I was having issues determining what the voltage was in neutral. I don't think it was +5v, I think it was more like +.5v. I could sink an LED, but I couldn't drive one.

Some people I asked insist on using diodes between the controller and *Wiz. I don't think I would need it since all I really care about is pulling to ground, not whether it's +5v. Except, I think one might need either a diode or small resistor to supress spikes if one wanted to use the joystick in a hotswap setup. Is that correct?

I'm not sure what is happening with the trigger switch, but you can test it the same way with your ohm meter.

The trigger is a momentary NO switch. I think I inadvertantly edited the note out when I removed the technical portions. The joystick trigger and lights connect to J1. J1 pins 3, 4 & 5 is a direct pass-thru to pins 1,2, & 3 on J2. J1 pin 1 is connected to Ground at pin 7 on J2. Makes sense to me.

[RandyT]

Got my notes. The pins are held almost at 0v when active and at +5v when inactive.

Sounds like a good thing.

Some people I asked insist on using diodes between the controller and *Wiz. I don't think I would need it since all I really care about is pulling to ground, not whether it's +5v. Except, I think one might need either a diode or small resistor to supress spikes if one wanted to use the joystick in a hotswap setup. Is that correct?

If you are planning to hot-swap to the interface, it might be a good idea.  Probably more to protect the circuit on the Gorf stick than anything else.  Some of the older discrete circuitry is kind of sensitive.  I've never popped  a GP-Wiz49 input, but I have killed at least one 49-way board by popping the connector going to the joystick with power connected.

The trigger is a momentary NO switch. I think I inadvertantly edited the note out when I removed the technical portions. The joystick trigger and lights connect to J1. J1 pins 3, 4 & 5 is a direct pass-thru to pins 1,2, & 3 on J2. J1 pin 1 is connected to Ground at pin 7 on J2. Makes sense to me.

Sounds like the ground is common between the light and the trigger switch.  Essentially it just needs to be the same as the way the directionals function and it should be ok.  Just make sure that the Gorf stick gets its power from the same place as the interface to be safe (i.e. not a wall wart)

RandyT

[SavannahLion]

Some people I asked insist on using diodes between the controller and *Wiz. I don't think I would need it since all I really care about is pulling to ground, not whether it's +5v. Except, I think one might need either a diode or small resistor to supress spikes if one wanted to use the joystick in a hotswap setup. Is that correct?

If you are planning to hot-swap to the interface, it might be a good idea.  Probably more to protect the circuit on the Gorf stick than anything else.  Some of the older discrete circuitry is kind of sensitive.  I've never popped  a GP-Wiz49 input, but I have killed at least one 49-way board by popping the connector going to the joystick with power connected.

Yeah, I kind of noticed the sensitivity. I inadvertantly connected +9v instead of +5v and the resistors were a little warm. Not blazingly hot, but not something I was really comfortable with on a 27 year old board. At least the LM339 happily functions up to +36v.

Sounds like the ground is common between the light and the trigger switch.  Essentially it just needs to be the same as the way the directionals function and it should be ok.  Just make sure that the Gorf stick gets its power from the same place as the interface to be safe (i.e. not a wall wart)

I thought that about the lights and ground myself. But my ohmmeter is showing nothing between the two (err.. three). I suspect the lights have their own circuit. Or maybe the bulbs have popped. Like a dummy, I didn't think to apply +5v to the lights to see what happens. I was too busy trying to figure out where I could order the security bit to take apart the joystick handle so I could see the lights.