do you think it would be easy to get your board to work on the wii USB. I’m not sure what it entails, but with the recent release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom, this would make the board even better.
When it’s working. I still have to do:
- Flesh out PSX support so it works with more than 1 button and 1 direction. This shouldn’t take long, but PSX seems really damn finicky to me, so it might take a couple of days.
- Create routines that will detect which console it’s connected to. With the current batch, this shouldn’t be too bad to detect when we’re connected to PSX or GC, but I’m really not sure yet how to detect whether the USB host we’re connected to is PC/PS3 or Xbox. Getting into Xbox mode may require a button held down when plugged in if I can’t find some sort of rejection message from the xbox when in ps3 mode.
- Solder together board expected to go in my Namco with the Pelican cord. Solder wires to a female DB-15 so I use my neogeo stick for testing the MC Cthulhu and console detection on all of the systems with the Pelican cable.
- A little more testing on the bootloader.
After that, I’ll have to find a couple of guinea pigs to help see if I missed anything.
Is it not possible to detect the system the same way you did for the UPCB (I know you would have done this already if it were that easy)? I’m not quite sure how that works though so this could be a completely stupid question.
Why did you decide to start the Cthulu MC project instead of sticking with the UPCB platform? Also, why did you decide not to make Cthulu open source? Which project will ultimately be best for someone looking to have a stick that will work with today and tomorrow’s systems (i.e. PS4, Xbox 720, Wiiiiii… or whatever ridiculous names they come up with)
UPCB uses detachable cables on a 15 pin connector. Pins not used for communication are tied high or low. When the board starts, it checks the pins for high or low in a specific order to determine which cable is attached. Cthulhu has all cables always connected, and most lines are used for more than one system, so there are no spare pins to check; it has to sit quiet for a little bit and read what kind of stuff is happening on the cables and figure out what console is trying to talk to it.
Already answered. Please take a moment to read through the thread. Your specific questions are answered here:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=5444881&postcount=39
I won’t address future consoles because there is simply no way for me to know. For the current gen systems, both the UPCB and the MC Cthulhu handle PS3 and GC natively, and require a sacrifice 360 pad if those are to be used. Frankly, they’re equally capable of just about everything. The UPCB can support more consoles (especially those requiring more pins like Jaguar, Genesis) and handles them with more features (button remapping) than the Cthulhu can, but the Cthulhu is dead simple to install. Installing a UPCB into a stick isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do.
Also look at if it is possible to detect an Xbox 360 on the other end. Would be sweet if the Cthulhu could gracefully pass the USB line over to a piggy-backed 360 PCB automatically! :looney:
I hate to admit it,but I hadn’t thought of that. I will look into it when possible.
(EDIT: On the UPCB. This is not possible on the Cthulhu.)
Got my Chtulu yesterday and took about an hour for complete installation… I must say… Bravo Toodles, this this is GREAT.
I was under the impression that the you could use multiple [insert console] to usb wires and plug the usb end in to the PCB, so only one console wire would be connected at a time and you could unplug the wire altogether. Basically the same setup as the UPCB but using a usb output instead of a db15. Is it possible to configure the clthulhu in this way? Whenever someone wanted to add console support they would create a cable in a similar way to the UPCB method but using a usb wire instead of the db15.
No. Please read through the thread and point out anything that might have given that impression so I can edit it.
Sorry, It was a poor assumption on my part. Seeing the usb jack on the current cthulhu being used to attach/detach a usb cable for the ps3 in addition to prior knowledge of the UPCB cables led me to think similar cables would be used in the MC version for other consoles. When you talked about old clthulhu users being able to just swap out the chip and get multiconsole functionality I figured they would plug different cables into there usb jack for the different consoles. So, to make sure I correctly understand it now, these users must create a wire with all consoles on one end and a usb on the other to go into their pcb?
There’s a grid of 3 rows with columns labeled A-G and V next to the USB jack. For each console you want to have the stick work on, you solder the wires from that console’s cable to the column I specify. There’s no limit to the number of cables connected, so you can have five cables coming out of the box easy, maybe more. Lots of cables coming out of the box look like tentacles to me; ergo, Cthulhu.
Yes, that means soldering will be involved for non-USB cables. However, I’m pretty damn certain Chad will be getting a stock of various cables and offering their installation as a service to continue the ability to get a totally solder-free solution.
Whew. Got a lot done today. First off, in case anyone needs it in the future, here’s the pinout from the cable I took from my Pelican. It doesn’t mean everyone’s will have this pinout, but it may help someone down the road. Mine came from the ugly yellow universal stick.
Color - Column on Cthulhu to solder to(NC means ‘not connected’) - explanation of pin and purpose
Black - NC - PSX #3, the ‘rumble’ power line.
White - NC - Xbox #5, the sync line for guns.
Grey - G - Ground, for all three cables.
Brown - C - PSX #1 DATA
Pink - E - Xbox #3 D+
Aqua (green/blue) - V - +5v power from GC and Xbox ends (noticably thicker than other wires)
Red - V - +3.3v power from PSX end (noticably thicker than other wires)
Baby Blue - D - Xbox #2 D-
Green - A - PSX #7 Clock
Yellow - D - PSX #6 ATT
Orange - B - PSX #2 CMD
Blue - F - GC #2 Data
Purple - F - PSX #9 ACK
I got a board all thrown together and wired up and put in an old case with Happ’s parts to quickly realize I really don’t care for Happ parts anymore. Put in a little code to make it button select (hold down Jab for PSX, Strong for GC, etc) and tested out the bootloader. Everything is going great. The PSX needs a little work because for some reason playing the PS1 CvSPro, P2 would work but not as P1. Weird. So PSX still needs a little tweaking and testing, but I’ll get on that. Still no word yet on how well it works with converters, but because of the breakthrough I made yesterday, getting it fully working as a proper Digital, DS1, or DS2 controller, properly reading and answering the extended commands, should be much easier now.
I guess we can scratch #1 and #3 off of that last list. I need to work on the routines to identify the connected console, and tweak PSX support a little, and I’m sure doing all of that will continue to test the bootloader quite well.
We’re making progress, but damn I’m pooped. I just want to veg for a little and continue tomorrow.
Don’t burn yourself out Toodles. Yes there are folks clamoring for this functionality. However your health should come first.
Take Care,
Michael
Applause on the continued success.
I’m seriously contemplating one of the pre assembled ones. How hard is it to learn how to solder?
Is there a place in Europe selling the Cthulhu board? I’m just asking because I’d really like to get some of these and if I have to order from the US I’ll risk paying customs taxes >.<
I’m supposing there isn’t since I’ve search and read most of the thread and didn’t come up with anything =/
On a side note, I’ve read the new MC Chtulhu will probably be sold as a ‘chip only upgrade’ to those who already own the original Chtulhu, I was wondering how hard do you think it would be for a guy like me (read: not so skilled in the art of soldering) to replace the chip? 
Soldering isn’t hard. You just have to know some basics.
- differences between the types of solder (lead vs lead-free, silver cord vs rosin core, etc)
- melting point of the solder so you don’t overheat components
- the side and not the very tip of the iron is the hottest part
- the iron is used to heat the solder point so solder melts (though many break this rule and apply solder to the iron, which results in you using more solder because the iron wicks away some of it)
If you want to practice, I suggest getting some stripboard, perfboard, or broken PCBs and give it a try. Remember, safety first. If you drop the iron, let it drop. Do not attempt to catch it.
The chip will be easy to replace. The Cthulhu comes with a DIP socket which allows easy removal of the old chip. You just need to carefully pry it from the socket and press in the new one.
Thanks for the answer, really good to know 
The other (and most important) question still stands though, anyone knows of a place in Europe selling the Cthulhu board?
I just wanted to clear this up so there wouldn’t be any misinformation.
Yes, separate upgrade chips for those who already have a Cthulhu will be available. However, there will also be full kits and fully assembled boards boards available as well, just like now.
Replacing the chip from a Cthulhu to a MC Cthulhu is pretty dead simple, no soldering involved. The Cthulhu has an IC socket the current chip goes into. You’ll need to pry the chip out of the socket with a flat blade screwdriver or similar and then pop the chip back in its place. Easy stuff.
The demand, especially around Christmas, has me planning on getting a large batch of maybe 500 boards preassembled at the factory. To help cut down on cuts, there are tweaks I can make to the board. I want to be clear on something though: There will be changes to the board, but none of the changes will be electrical. I know ShinJn and others may be worried about changes, so I want to be clear that none of the changes will affect the capability or performance of the board. The changes I’m thinking about making are to replace some or most of the components with surface mount versions of the equivalent part. The main chip will be the first one to go surface mount; this means I won’t need the IC socket, and assembly costs for surface mount components are cheaper than for their respective through hole components. Ditto for the pull up resistors and capacitors. The two solder jumpers on the current board will be removed; there is no need for the ‘Home Disable’ jumper since it’ll be easier to put a wire into the Home and Gnd screw terminals that will be on every board. The USB Only jumper won’t be needed because I plan to have the four diodes already on and installed on the board. That will make things easier for installing cables since no one will have to worry about which row they put their power line in or which diode spots have diodes in them because they’ll all already be installed and ready. The smaller components also means that I can move the labels for the screw terminals to someplace visible. 
There are NO changes planned or anticipated for the through hole version of the board, and will remain the exact same board we have available for the PS3 only and MC Cthulhu kits.
Any idea where we would be able to get this tri-system cable at, or can we use extensions cables for each system hooked up to the chtulhu?