Sorry to resurrect a old thread but better than starting a new one. About to go the project route since I want to use some jap and k sticks but don’t want to mod all of them with pcbs. I plan on going db15.
Anyone known about the above question?
There is a problem with the regular, run-on-the-mill, cheap VGA cable.
Not all 15 pins are connected straight to the 15 pins on the other side.
Cheap cables makers will cut corners and only have the lowest numbers of wires used. So out of 15 pins there only 5 or 6 wires used and all the various ground pins are tied together.
Only on high quality cables, Red, Blue and Green has their own ground or return lines and they are not tied together.
Also even on high end cables, often pin number 9 is missing, so you are down one wire.
You are better off with the larger DA 15 pin connectors, often used with super guns and Neo geo.
Wire up your sticks for expanded Neo Geo Plus configuration, that will account for a 6-button style stick which also takes care of your Start and Select.
And make your Project boxes take a Super Gun controller/stick. There also a number of adapters that adapt a console controller to Jamma via a DA 15 pin connector.
You can later use this with your Project boxes to make converters as needed.
Pin 9 here isn’t used, so you can wire up an additional Home button.
Ok, think I heard about the cheap vga connector issue before thanks for clearing that up. So if I was to use the neo plus configuration I could use it on my neo geo no issues? I orginally was going off the neo geo config.
So I can use a neo geo extention cord to hook my project box stick directly to a neo geo or to any of my project boxes? And just to clarify, is there a specific male/female db15 connector size I should be using for my boxes and stick?
Well the Neo geo uses the DA-15 connector. Often incorrectly called DB 15, The DB connector is a 25 pin that is used for old printer parallel ports, some odd Production Japanese made Super guns also used DB 25 connectors.
Keep in mind the actual Neo Geo consoles have deeper than normal sockets, so a standard DA plug will not fit.
So you want to look on like for ether replacement or extension Neo geo controller cables if you want to use with a real Neo Geo.
Something to remember if you want your controller to be usable on a Neo Geo console, this is unnecessary if Neo Geo is not you thing.
For Project Boxes and for most purposes you can get away with standard off the shelf DA connectors.
The Connector on the project box that your Neo Geo Plus controller plugs into would not matter.
Yeah, i saw ppl saying db15 and I saw da15, thought maybe there was a difference, thanks for clearing that up for me. Figure any female/male da15 will do as long as I get the solder cup version. Saw them for like a $1 on ebay with $3 dollar shipping. Ill buy afew sets with combined shipping.
Yeah, im a fan of playing the neo fighters on orginal hardware. have a big red cab plus after i get these project boxes done for acouple of sticks I want to work on a CMVS. Im in no hurry though, keep my eye open for a low priced 1slot board(with controller ports) or a 2 slot. Would rather get a 2 slot to be honest. So Ill be looking for acouple of neo ext cords instead of using the standard da15 cords. Plus the black cords look better then the beige colored ones. lol
One more question about the DA15 pin layout, pin #8, the +5v. I dont need that pin unless im doing dual mods or leds in my project stick right?
Thanks again
The +5 volts, for a typical Neo geo stick no. Although the Neo Geo CD game pad (for some odd reason) and the Hori Neo Geo stick uses it (for the turbo I think)
You also use it for lights, optical joysticks ect…
Cool, i thought so. Ill just be using your average Seimitsu buttons and LS32/LS40’s. Dont need my stick to cause seizures lol
Last question for you , do you know if they sell deeper da15 connectors like the ones found on a MVS board? Be nice to have the plug/cord secure in there without the screw fastners.
You been alot of help clearing up the questions i had on this simple project.
Thanks dude
I don’t know. You can try the Neo Geo Forums.
I found with the plastic plugs you don’t need the screw fasteners
Hello everybody, just want to show you what I have been finishing up and it will be in two parts… the other part will be posted in another thread at a later time while the first part is appropriate for this thread, so without further ado:
Round 1: The project boxes
All of my boxes have been purchased at Radio Shack and initially I only purchase a couple to experiment with. Later down the road when I heard news of Radio Shack’s store closure, I promptly headed down there since it is hard to pass up a clearance sale… so I dropped by a few Radio Shack around my area and manage to buy a bunch of electronic stuff including project boxes.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01143.jpg
The good thing about the Radio Shack boxes is that they have perforated cutouts for the DB9 or DB25, so it makes it more managable to mount the ports in the boxes. All the boxes here are 6"x3"x2" in dimension and has a female DB25 port on them.
PS/PS2
The PS/PS2 box pcb came from an official PSOne Controller.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01129.jpg
Added a lighted up anti vandal pushbutton switch for the analog so that it can be enable/disable for certain games to work properly.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01145.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01135.jpg
However, the controller does not put out 5v for optical sticks and such. So I have added a step up converter board to do such a thing.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01140.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01138.jpg
Other than that, not much to say about it other than it is a really small PCB inside the box.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01142.jpg
Dreamcast
The Dreamcast box pcb is from an Agetec stick that I’ve gutted a while back. This box took me a while to put together because I wanted to impliment the VMU slot on the project box. I’ve desolder most of the ports on the PCB, wired it up appropriately, and did a bit of custom work (also using the parts that was inside the Agetec joystick) to get it to fit together.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01144.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01147.jpg
In the end, it turned out as expected.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01148.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01150.jpg
Xbox Original
The Xbox Original box pcb is from a Gamester Reflex joystick in which the joystick itself is awful, but the PCB is perfect. It also has a memory slot and 2 programmable macro buttons built in.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XGWhM3G4L.jpg
I’ve gutted the joystick for its pcb and using the rotary tool to extracted the memory slot. Made a hole on the project box in the exact shape of the memory slot and using a combination of screws and epoxy, it all came together. Also added one lighted up anti vandal pushbutton switch and two 24mm Sanwa pushbutton to the box (one button to enable/record the macro and two buttons to activate the macro).
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01152.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01156.jpg
This project box I enjoyed putting together.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01158.jpg
Dual Mod PS3/Xbox360
The Dual mod PS3/Xbox360 box pcb came from a gutted PowerA ProEX wired PS3 controller and Afterglow wired Xbox360 controller. Both pads has their triggers and thumb stick removed and neutralized… added a pcb board using a combination of resistors, transistors and diodes to get it to work altogether.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01160.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01161.jpg
Also added a 4PDT switch to change between the PCB and 4 Bi-polar led for the player indicator… Red is PS3, Green is Xbox360.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01182.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01180.jpg
MC Cthulu
Not much to say other than it is a MC Cthulu, Imp V2 and Rock Candy wired Xbox360 controller all inside the project box. Took me longer to cut square holes for the USB and RJ45 jack than wiring all the PCB together.
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01183.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01187.jpg
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af274/misterjessejames/PCB%20Project%20Box/DSC01189.jpg
That’s it for now… I will add/edit this thread if I have more project boxes to show. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.
just curious, how much did you pay per project box with sale?
It was like about $2 a pop when it went in clearance. I recalled at that time it was 60% off on electronic components at that one store where I snatched a majority of it. Went to like 7-8 other located near and not so near me and many of their electronics tools and supplies were more or less already gone. So I was fortunate to find a couple of store that still had some left for me for slim pickings.
damn, thats really good, might have to look for some closing in houston
Apologies in advance since I was a bit vague on my previous comment on Radio Shack closure thing. Those project boxes were purchased like last year when they were closing a lot of their stores nationwide (it was fairly big news on the media and word spread like crazy). It just that I finally got the chance (and the spare time) to put them together recently to showcase my work. There is still a few Radio Shack left that is still open currently… but of course their stuff is still a bit overly priced.
I guess the funny thing is back then before the store closures, nearest Radio Shack would be a 5 minute drive for me. Despite the fact the sales person doesn’t know jack about electronics when I specify what I was looking for (they seem to be more interested in selling me cellphone), I would still go there because at least they have some things that I needed without the wait. Now after all this closure business, the nearest Radio Shack is a 15 minute drive now and the sad thing is that I would still drive the extra distance to buy their electronic stuff… of course I can buy online or eBay, but there are times when I need something little, that cost little, to finish up a project.
Well anyway, best way to get project boxes at reasonably price would be online if you don’t mind the wait. Just make sure you get one at adequate size if you planning to stuff a controller PCB in there.
Is there a standard wiring for DB25? If not, should we make one?
If you are referring to the gauge of the wire or if it should be stranded or solid, then there is no set standard that I am aware of in terms of wiring a DB25. For the cable manufacturer that produce the parallel cable, it is in their discretion what size/material they want to put in their cables to justify for the cost for selling such cables. Many of the wires in joystick are small gauge wires since it is mostly low voltage, so you can even use wire strands from a network cable and it should still be fine.
The light grey wires that I put in my project boxes came from IDE cables that I had laying around in storage (have to put these old cables to good use). I just snip off the port ends of the IDE cable, use a x-acto knife to cut in-between each wire strand and then peel off each strand. So the strand of light grey wires from the IDE cable would be around 26 AWG and the other colored wires I used for identifying voltage and ground is 22 AWG.
Hope this helps.
@JesseJames
I’m pretty sure that @me_tan was asking if there was a standard Dsub-25 pinout.
To which the answer is still no, not really. Dsub-15 connectors had an accepted pinout that was considered “standard” due to the Neo-Geo (and consequently, Superguns’) use of the connector. There was never any widespread console that used Dsub-25 jacks, so no real standard there.
That being said, I believe some people would wire their Dsub-25 connectors to the pinout from that one Supergun that used Dsub-25 connectors (the name eludes me at the moment).
There was one brand or line of Super Guns that used DB25 connectors, they are to be used with their own brand of sticks.
There isn’t that many and their format didn’t get adopted by any other makers.
Problems with standards is it isn’t standard till enough people willing to adapt the schematics to become standard.
Closest thing I seen to a standard at the moment is what @“Jasen Hicks” is doing for his Panzer 2.0 sticks and they use a DB25 connector, the cable on the far ends ends as a db15.
Right. I wanted a standard DB25 pin out on the stick to expose all of the main buttons, yet be able to use it on SuperGuns across the board, hence the custom cables I had manufactured. Even most modern games only require 6 buttons, so DB25 is really overkill unless you integrate analog controls into it as well.
Oh okay… appreciate the follow-up. I misinterpret the question that he asked and answered it in a Frank Drebin way. 
the 2 extra macro buttons are still quite common on the sticks themselves, so might as well include them, plus start select and and home button. While db25 is still overkill, there is nothing wrong with a little overhead in case some future console has something else on there we’ve not thought of yet.
Post your pinout, call it the Panzer standard. Maybe future PCBs will have it and then there will be no need to have chocolate block screw terminals on there. Worst case is noone uses it but you. Or I could be a complete idiot for posting this entire thing.