Old Nintendo Joystick

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Gregg
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Old Nintendo Joystick

Post by Gregg »

Hey! I am looking for information on interfacing an old nintendo joystick for use in other applications. I'd like to chop the end of the connector and use it to controll a servo motor system. I believe the switches are connected to a shift register, but i have no pinout diagram, so this is where i need help. THANKS
bobsRAC
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Re: Old Nintendo Joystick

Post by bobsRAC »

The pinout is here. The timing diagram is here. The data is serial, with a strobe line marking the beginning of each transmit sequence. The strobe and clock lines are supplied by the Nintendo box. The data line is a pull-up resistor on the Nintendo side, and an open-collector output on the controller side. Each bit of data is clocked in on the falling edge of the clock line. The bits in order are:<p>A
B
select
start
up
down
left
right<p>[ July 18, 2002: Message edited by: bobsRAC ]</p>
Gregg
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Re: Old Nintendo Joystick

Post by Gregg »

Is it easy to interface this controller with an led display. I.e. a different led controlled with each joystick movement?
bobsRAC
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Re: Old Nintendo Joystick

Post by bobsRAC »

That depends on what you have access to. If you have access to a microcontroller or programmable logic, the interface would be pretty staightforward. Implementing this with a serial-in-parallel-out (SIPO) shift register is do-able, although I believe it would end up costing more materials, time, and energy than a programmable solution.<p>If you aren't yet into programmable devices, I'd suggest getting there if you plan on dealing with digital devices very often. If yo udo more projects requiring analog interface, uarts (RS232 or the computer's serial protocol), spi, i2c, PWM or such related operations at slow to moderate speeds (i.e. < 20MHz), I'd suggest microcontrollers. They can be purchased for $2 to $30 each and perform many complex tasks. Required start-up costs are as little as $80 - $100. Atmel's STK500 can be had from Digi-key for $80 and includes everything you need to start into programming embedded devices. Microchip's ICD can be purchased from Custom Computer Services, although I don't like their customer service. There is a gnu compiler for the Atmel chips (that means FREE). Look for avrgcc (it'll be in the far right tab at the top of the page). They've even got demos to help you get started.
bobsRAC
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat May 18, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Florida
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Re: Old Nintendo Joystick

Post by bobsRAC »

If you plan on doing more high-speed logic and less procedural programming, you might look into programmable logic devices (PLD). Lattice Semiconductor for their simple PLDs (SPLD) or complex PLDs (CPLD). I beleive you can get into that area for about $100 as well.<p>If you are doing one project and never really plan on doing more, getting a devel environment set up isn't the way to go, and I'd suggest trying something with a shift register and something of and and gate on the clock line as an enable latch.<p>If you're an enthusiast, getting a dev environment ends up being cheaper than messing with 74x ICs and yards of interconnect wires.
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