Saturn to PSX converter

Tech Talk
1

Hello!

I desperately want to get the SAT2PSX converter to hook up my Sega Virtua Stick Pro to other consoles (chaining SAT2PSX with the Tototek converters). Paul Keio from keio.dk is the only known person who used to made such converters, but they are no longer in production so I’ve decided to build some by myself using description from his site.

They seems pretty easy to make, the only problem for me was the microcontroller stuff, so I’ve ordered two pre-progammed items from him. Unfortunately it didn’t help because my order was not shipped and all my attempts to connect Paul are failing since the early april, but I was lucky to found an engineer at the local electronic forum who helped me with programming. As for Paul, he is like completely offline for some reason, and that’s why I’m searching for the help/advice around the web.

So, the problem is that nothing works and I’m actually tired checking the stuff. Everything is built up exactly as it is described here. All wires are soldered to DIP socket pins in the provided order, both SAT1 and PSX5 wires are soldered to the pin 20 of the socket (and both SAT9 and PSX4 goes to pin 10), continuity is perfect, circuits are not shortened, 10µF capacitor across the 5V and GND is soldered with the negative side towards the GND. When converter is connected to PS2, LED is glowing with the plugged Saturn pad, and blinking with 3 sec interval without it.

ATtiny2313-20PU chip itself is powered by Playstation’s +3.3V (which differs from the +5V at the wiring diagram, but seem normal, as there are no PSXs or PS2s in this Galaxy which outputs +5V to pin 5). Firmware file (which is Saturn_to_PSX.hex) is taken from the source archive and uploaded with the Phyton ChipProg-48 programmer. Fuse bits info from the text file


-U lfuse:w:0xe4:m -U hfuse:w:0x9f:m -U efuse:w:0xff:m

actually seems to be the AVRDUDE code, which could be solved with the AVR Fuse Calculator.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/284024/keio.jpg

So my mind is really blowing off, I can’t understand what I did wrong or why this stuff doesn’t work, and I’m looking for any help on this case. Thanks ahead!

2

I never got this deep into a project like this. I help where I can.

Most of us used a premade kit, the FG Widget Converter which can be found at http://godlikecontrols.com/

More information can be provided here

3

This was a hell of a lot more of a thread than I expected. Paul stopped making these due to issues with arthritis. He was having issues assembling them. There were a couple of people who wanted to pick up his slack but it didn’t happen.

4

That’s too bad…

This really is a better way to approach modding than hacking things apart or assembling project boxes when it’s not necessary –
especially for joypads which get harder to find as time goes by!

Whenever I see an official pad from a retro console hacked to make a joystick, I cringe.

Quality digital pads just aren’t made any more. The official PS and MS joypads are best for analog games and last longest with that type of game. They’re just not durable enough to endure constant use with most fighting games and do eventually break.

And those of us with common sense try to tell these people that but… They… Still… Don’t… Listen!!!

I know the D-pad on my PSP sure wasn’t durable enough for SF Alpha Upper! (That wasn’t what broke on my last PSP… It was my first PSP where the D-pad broke! It was still under warranty and Sony had to send me a full replacement system. On the third system – yes, it took them TWO tries to get me a system that was less defective(!) --, the UMD drive was what ultimately broke and finished off the system. By that time, I was royally annoyed at the lack of quality software titles and at the fact I was using the PSP more as a mobile movie player than a game system! Traded the system, all my PSP games, and peripherals in towards payment on a PS3 and haven’t looked back since on portable game players tempting as the hardware may be… The software titles generally aren’t there…)

5

My PSP has CFW so I play emulators on it. Serious PS games are sent to my PS vita.

6

I had the same issues and after googling what the pinouts do, I figured out the correct wiring. I didn’t use/need the capacitor.

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/7633/pkk.png

7

Yeah, this pinout is from the Keio’s site, I used it, too. But do you mean that it is messed up?

I’ve just googled controller pinouts, the PSX seems fine, but as for the Saturn, Keio’s seems to be different:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/284024/satpins.png

Don’t you accidentally remember what was the correct wiring? Because I don’t see the solution yet.

8

Take a good look at the picture I posted, pin 3 and 5 are swapped from Keio’s posted version.

9

I’m serious, they are identical: both http://denki.world3.net/pad_converters.html and the picture above have SAT TH 4 soldered to pin 3 and SAT TL 6 soldered to pin 5. Maybe he updated it? Anyway, I tried both ways, but nothing happened.

10

Ah, I see he did update it. I had sent him an email about it quite awhile ago, but I hadn’t checked the site for quite sometime.

Have you tried without the capacitor? If all your wiring is correct then they aren’t programmed correctly.

If you can’t get it sorted send me a pm and I can program them for you, just pay postage.

11

Cool! Thank you for your offer. But actually I gave up messing with this stuff and ended up using another way—I got two cheap third-party PSX controllers and inserted the pcbs right into the panel, so I don’t need this converter anymore. Pretty happy with the result:

Thanks for the help everybody!

12

The PSx solution is not the most elegant but its often the most flexible, second to only project boxes.
Hey if it works, don’t knock it.

13

Are the PSX controllers dual shocks? I know a couple of games and converters don’t like the plain digital PSX controllers. Other than that, I think it looks good with the PSX leads coming out.

14

Those cords appear to be the later PS One Controllers.

15

They do look like PS One controllers, but he had said they were 3rd party. So I was wondering if they were dual shock.

16

They are plain digital non-dualshock cheap-ass controllers :smiley:

17

Probably for the best as the official PS One controllers are hard to pad hack.

18

I’m trying to make one of these, and I bought the Attiny2313-20PU. I’ve read the guides about the regular t2313, but do I really need to power the target board with a battery pack? I’m using a USBTiny and Avrdude keeps telling me “target fails to initialize.” If so, I’ll hook one up, and next time I’ll learn to use a different chip instead. :frowning:

19

In that picture on the Denki site, an atmega8 was used. I flashed the hex on to the atmega8 and wired the thing according to the pin equivalents using that data sheet. It doesn’t work, what am I doing wrong?

20

Hi, everyone I’m interested in doing this project who can help me?
ATMEGA8-16PU or ATTINY2313-20PU?