Sorry for yelling, but I want to make sure everyone gets this. THE TRI-SYSTEM CABLE IS NOT REQUIRED! YOU CAN USE ANY CORD OR EXTENSION CABLE FOR ANY CONSOLE THE MC CTHULHU SUPPORTS! USE ONE OR FIVE CABLES, IT DOESN’T MATTER!
You can any cable you like. If you just want PS3 and Gamecube, you can use a USB cable in the USB jack like before and use a Gamecube extension cable and solder three of the wires from it to the board. You’ll have two cables hanging out the back of the stick. If you down the road decide to add Xbox, no problem. Solder four of the wires from an Xbox extension cable to the board and have three cables coming out the back. Add PSX? No problem, grab a PSX extension cable and solder the seven wires to the board and have four cables hanging out the back. The three system cable is by no means required, it is just nice because it has all of the ends and all of the wires we need in one cable. You could just as easily use the PSX+USB cable from Mayflash sticks. Or use the PSX+Xbox cable from the SFAC sticks. Or just use individual extension cables.
Oh god no man you’re fine. Sorry, that’s the crass in me coming out again. I just didn’t want people thinking they HAD to hunt down one of those cables. They’re nice, but by no means required.
I’ll be ordering two of these when my TE comes in. This board is going to be great for the TE since the TE has that compartment to hide the cables :lovin:.
Now I have a quick question concerning the chtulhu being mated to the TE PCB. I will be ordering the 360 version of the stick. Would there be a way to make the guide button on the stick also work as the home button for the PS3. It would seem impossible since the button is embedded on the 360 pcb, but your undying wisdom will probably prove me wrong :wgrin:
Until I get one in my hands, I don’t have any way of knowing 100%. I can say that that I’d expect is that it COULD be done. I don’t know if there is a signal wire going from the PCB under the switch to a main board, or if that switch is on the main board itself. It is very possible that in order to do it would require soldering a small wire on the board, but I won’t be able to tell 100% until I get one in my hands. But, any number of things could prove me wrong, so take with a grain of salt. I’m hoping to focus on a solderless way of installing it, and I have no way of knowing if it could be done solderless until I crack one open.
Version 2 of the Cthulhu sounds pretty sexy. Good thing they will be pre-assembled because I hate soldering surface mount stuff. Looks like I’ll be ordering some of the v2s. Nudge I’ve seen the insides.
Now I don’t know much about usb other than that its 4 pin (Vcc D+ D- Ground). But, I was stumbled into a few pages (http://www.adaptoid.com/index.html and http://todbot.com/blog/2008/02/18/wiichuck-wii-nunchuck-adapter-available/) that got me thinking about the possibility of some non-usb controller protocols being controlled by 4 pin usb. I bring this up because I’m wondering if some consoles (maybe n64 or wii) could use a cable that would plug into a usb jack on the cthulhu. Toodles, I know you dismissed this idea awhile back when I thought this was the original plan, but is it at all possible for some consoles? I understand that many consoles could not be supported this way and would need a soldered connection to the pcb, but are there any consoles other than ps3 (or god-will 360 some day) that could make use of the usb jack?
Through hole kits will still be available, just to be clear.
Of the TE’s? Pics or it didn’t happen.
Ah, I kinda see what you’re saying, and sadly the answer is no. The idea is sound though. I almost could. If I had the ability to control the input and output of the of the same pins I use for USB, then, yes, I’d be able to just write the Gamecube or whatever protocol to use those two I/O lines and then the end user could splice together a gamecube cable to a ‘B’ plug and plug it in and go. Good idea, except I can’t. The problem isn’t anything to do with splicing the cables to a ‘B’ plug, the problem is the two pins that control USB on the microcontroller I’m using. Those two pins, if they are NOT used for USB, can only be used as an input; I could read data on those two pins, but I can’t use either of them as an output. You’ll notice in that tri-console cable pinout I put up, the PSX ‘ATT’ line is connected together with (in the same column as) one of the Xbox USB lines. The ‘ATT’ line output is controlled by the PSX, and read by the Cthulhu board, so it’s a good spot for it. However nothing that goes out and is read by the console can be used on those pins. If you’re into nitty gritty details, check the datasheet. Its the RC4 and RC5 pins of the 18LF2550 PIC.
I just saw those. You’ve got button wires going to a distribution block of some kind, then two ribbon cables (5 wires and 6 wires) going to the main PCB, while the stick wires go to the pcb from a different side of the case. Hmmmmm. How to do this…
yeah tapping into the button wires doesn’t look like a problem, it will be accessing the ps/guide button, d+, d-, and vcc…maybe the joystick directions since it doesn’t look to have a terminal.
i’m sure some light modding of the pcb casing would get you access to the pcb but who knows how small the solder points will be especially for the guide button.
I know he had some at one time, but I don’t know if he does any longer.
A couple of things you could do if you were dead set on having individual ends or cables for each console:
You could have all of the column wires (all 8 of them) connected to a DB-9 or some other jack on the stick case, and then make a upcb style cable for each system you wanted. But if you’re going to go to that much trouble, you might as well get a UPCB and go all of the way.
If you had some sort of PSX+USB cable, like the PSX+USB cable from a Mayflash/Elecom stick, or a PSX+Xbox cable from the SFAC stick, then you could have all of your USB based stuff taken care of with a Xbox->USB or USB->Xbox adapter, and make your own cables connected to the PSX end for the rest. You could use the female end of PSX extension cables and the normal end of the GC cable and splice them so it’d work.
I just don’t think either of options would be very popular. It seems folks are more comfortable with multiple cables coming out of the stick.
Alright, I’m gonna take one more shot before I drop this lol. Once again I don’t know much about this stuff so please overlook any stupid ideas. Do you have two spare output pins on the pic? If so, is it somehow possible to splice the connections on the usb jack into two sets of pcb traces: one pair headed to the input as it is setup now and another pair headed to the output pins? If there are issues with information heading up the output traces you could throw in diodes.
The computer I’m currently on won’t read pdf’s for some reason even though adobe is in so I can’t read the datasheets. But everything I’m finding on retailers’ spec sheets just cites 24 input/output pins. I trust when you say they can’t be used though. I know you mentioned earlier in the thread that
Even though there not used did you leave room for their inputs? If so can these pins be used to output?
EDIT: I did read over your suggestions. I’m not determined enough to use some workaround, just pondering the possibilities of an official implementation. In term’s of the DB9, thats kinda the reason I’m interested in USB. Seeing the DB15 on the UPCB is a bit of a turn off because they are much bulkier than usb in my opinion (which would also take up room in the TE stick cable compartment ) and not quite as common to come by. USB wires are everywhere, sleek, and compact.
datasheet PDF page 119, page 117 if you go by the numbers on the pages themselves.
Uh, no.
Is there some problem with the Cthulhu as it is? I’m always open to criticism and very open to ideas on how it could be improved. If you have some suggestions on how it could be better for a customer to have or use, I’m all ears. I can figure just about anything out, and I know what is or isn’t possible especially with my own board. You’re asking me vague questions about what might be possible, without any clear goal given or problem that needs fixing. I’m not gonna field those anymore. If you want a specific improvement, say so. Explain how you envision the final product to be and let me worry about the details, and I’ll happilly point out either #1 Why it can’t be done. #2 Why it shouldn’t be done. or #3 When it will be included.
This is a little better. USB has the problem of only using two wires, so any cable going through needs to use two or less wires.
The only systems that use a single wire for communication are N64 and GC. The only ones that use two wires are the USB based ones, and i2c wiimote peripherals. (I think the Nuon DVD game controller uses 2 as well)
at the risk of sounding lame, i think r3 is used in soulcalibur games to reset position back to center in training mode. i’m not a soulcalibur player but reset to center has always been a time saver for me when practicing combos in other games.
its not like every stick has this function anyways, people with retail 360 sticks like the ex2 or hrapex don’t even have it so 360 sc4 stick players have been living without it from the beginning unless they dual modded an hrap3 with a 360 pcb or have a custom with that feature.
but yeah thats like the only reason i see to have an r3 button on your stick.
Sorry, that’s the crass in me coming out again. I just didn’t want people thinking they HAD to hunt down one of those cables. They’re nice, but by no means required.