NES controllers on the DC?

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 3:31 pm

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to give the quantum the thumbs down. It just stopped working for no apparent reason. Was working fine last night, did nothing to it, now it doesn't work... Eh, there's $8 down the drain. :?

Oh yeah, the "Unknown Circular thing" is a battery. A watch battery, which is how it remembers moves you program.

I'm gonna try the Mad Catz later tonight or tomorrow.

pipa · Post by **pipa** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 11:40 am

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to give the quantum the thumbs down. It just stopped working for no apparent reason. Was working fine last night, did nothing to it, now it doesn't work... Eh, there's $8 down the drain. :?

Send it to me :) Seriously though, I've had one of them hacked for about 6 months and have had NO problems with it at all.

Oh yeah, the "Unknown Circular thing" is a battery. A watch battery, which is how it remembers moves you program

Duh - I should have known that - THANKS! I guess I can safely snip it :)

I think I'll try snipping off the danalog controll pad too and see what happens - it's really in the way

Brian

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 4:52 pm

I suspect mine was just a dud. I bought it used, after all.

I bought another one today, as I'm to paranoid about accidentally crossing over a wire and blowing out my DC. I'm giving my mad catz to a friend, who would be more likely to risk such things. I actually tried soldering it, but I sucked at it so much we kept getting wire crossovers. Soldering on the NES pad is a lot easier, just stick wire in hole push solder in.

I'd like to thank all of you for your help. Long live the DC!

Marvin · Post by **Marvin** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 5:52 pm

Removing the analog stick might cause the a malfunction in the controller. I removed the analog stick from the Mad Catz pad once, and turned it on with Soul Caliber. The menu screen went haywire, as if I was constantly circling the stick. I think that the controller was trying to send position values to the Dreamcast, but there was no stick there to send the correct value. The stick works via two potentiometers, so putting the right value resistors or shorts in the circuit may correct this. You would have to measure the values at the contacts with the analog stick still in place.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 9:35 pm

I got a NES pad working.

To bad I burned my finger a bit on the soldering iron.

This was with a quantum pad. The strange thing is it behaves as if L and R are held down all the time - I cut them off, so they're not. This means it's no good for a single player controller, since I can't even get into a game. Testing it two player, everything works perfect except the back arrow. Dunno why, I'm gonna have to look at it later. Getting late, probably tomorrow after school.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Wed Mar 06, 2002 9:47 pm

Oh yeah, if you really want that quantum pad, I'll ship it to you. I have no use for it, and make regular trips to the post office for ebay sales.

Maybe you can fix it.

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Sun Mar 10, 2002 11:37 pm

Success! I got it working, though for some reason I forgot to do the select button. Blah. Only odd thing is that after I cut off the triggers they act as if they're always held down. Very annoying, since it renders the controller unusable for first player.. I should of left them on since it lets you exit the game, but I didn't think of it when I was making it. Planning to resolder on the triggers, I guess... I might not though, since tomorrow I'm gonna do another one, and I could just have this one work as the first player and the other as second.

Right now I'm trying to figure out some kind of case for it..

Oh yeah, and I'm gona write a tutorial. An EXTREMELY step by step guide for the people who haven't soldered before. Might not help to many people, but I like writing tutorials.

navi · Post by **navi** » Sat Mar 16, 2002 11:11 am

The Super Nintendo Controller Correspondes almost exactly with the DC pad (minus the Analog and Plus the Select Button) It have the D-Pad, Start pad, and A,B,X,Y,L,R. and it was alsways more comfortable in my hands than a dumb N64 Controller.

i think'd it'd be a perfect match gonna try it and let you guys know how it works and ideas or comments let me know

laters
-navi

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Sun Mar 17, 2002 10:44 pm

I wrote my NES2DC tutorial. Figured I'd put it here.

http://nes2dc.tripod.com

navi · Post by **navi** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 5:49 pm

I've Got a question for you for guys about the NES/DC pad. when i'm soldering from the 9+Pin Cable to the Quatum Fighter Pad and one of the Fighter's pad's Wires get's *cut* from the Quatum Board... how would you about puting it back on? Soldering it back to the board?

BTW the SNES to DC pad is coming along. i'll post some pics/scimatics up when i get a chance

thanx
-navi

koz · Post by **koz** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 8:03 am

Nice arcade cab hack Pipa, I was thinking of doing the same thing....you went with the arcade monitor?

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 11:14 am

Navi, yeah, just solder it back on. You could actually just solder directly to the board, it's just harding then doing it to the wires.

On my THIRD NES controller, I managed to keep the quantum pad working, and I have a cord which comes out of a drilled hole. Much slicker and no visible duct tape anymore :P I also got a 10 pin cable from a really crappy gamepad I bought for $10 as I couldn't find a gameport extension cable. The cool thing though is that it's a black cable and VERY flexible - feels much more like a NES cord. My third revision is essentially perfect, very happy with it.

navi · Post by **navi** » Tue Apr 16, 2002 6:42 pm

Hey cool thanx.

hey would you happen to sell an already made NES2DC pad??? it'd really save me time

thanx
-navi

pipa · Post by **pipa** » Wed Apr 17, 2002 1:53 pm

Koz,
>Nice arcade cab hack Pipa, I was thinking of
>doing the same thing....you went with the arcade monitor?
>
Nope - it's actually a brand new standard 19" VGA monitor that is made to look (and mount) just like an arcade monitor. I got it for free (essentially).

The page has moved to http://www.pipa.net/arcade/dreamcast.phpin case anyone wants to check it out. it will soon be moving to http://www.thebrokenjoystick.com/dreamcast.php

I'm almost done. I need to update the page. :)

Brian

Lartrak · Post by **Lartrak** » Thu Apr 18, 2002 2:51 pm

Well... I sold one of these on ebay and it went for $31. I'd suspect it would of gone for more if I'd of had a picture. I didn't put one cause the thing was kind of ugly, with raw wires and such. Been thinking about selling my really good model (which functions as a full DC controller and has a NES-like black cord, no visible wire, and it comes out of a hole drilled in the controller). But... The thing is, the parts for the good model alone were nearly $25. $8 for the Quantum, $4 for the NES pad (to much I know, but haven't seen a cheaper place for them), and around $10 for the cable. I could probably get cheaper cabling if I really looked, but it wouldn't be as good.

They also take me around 2-3 hours to make. So at this point, I don't think I'm gonna make anymore to sell. $20 in parts, 3 hours of labor (plus another hour to sell it on ebay or to a person here) and only like $20 of profit.. Not really worth it to me.