The Optical Joystick Discussion

Tech Talk
261

Oh snap, looking at it again, you’re right! There is already a 100k Ohm resistor there! :wasted:

Apologies Toodles; wasn’t aware of that the first time. Forgive my stupid moment. In any case though, when I was working with shrimpnoodles, he still had problems with that board before he messed around with anything. Both him and Ouroborus came to me with issues and both of them were doing a dual mod set up with a Multi-Console Cthulu board, an Imp board, and an Xbox 360 PCB. I’m at a loss honestly since I installed one for my friend’s Happ Perfect 360 on his custom multi-console stick and his is working just fine.

262

So, Ouroborus, start talking Tell me about your problems, in great detail, preferably with pictures. As long as swapping the resistor didn’t hurt anything, it should still be usable.

263

Just so I make sure I’m reading this right, if I’m using Toodle’s Chimp, I should be able to tap the vcc line to power the p360? Trying to get my ducks in a row before I start ordering stuff for this next project

264

Yep.

265

thanks for your help.

without the sparkfun converter, the ascii optical will have funky inputs (like u/b not working, down, left and right will lag) when used on a ps2 or inpin converter

with the sparkfun converter, i wired the “in” park to the VCC wire of the cthulhu board and the “out” to the red wire of the ascii optical. i wired both of the ground points of the converter to the ground points of the cthulhu.

the problem is that there is no power to the thing at all for both usb,ps2 or ps2 w/inpin. actually, i wouldn’t say no power at all but the voltage meter reads like ~0.3v to ~0.5v.

i tried jumping j1 and it would work for the USB cable, but for ps2, it does not work. for the inpin converter, it dims the led on the inpin converter and does not work.

i’m afraid that jumping the j1 on the sparkfun converter might have damaged the ascii optical although only slightly. i noticed some black burn marks on the ascii restrictor gate.

266

Can you take the converter out of the stick for me and take pictures of it place? After that, we’re going to need a resistor for testing, a through hole one with long legs. I think itd be best if we test the converter without the uber spendy flash involved. Dig out a new resistor with long leads, 100 ohm or higher (the 220 and 330 ohm most folks use for LEDs would work great., even 1k, or 10k can work.) and solder one of the leads to the output voltage. Leave the other lead of the resistor hanging, not soldered, but close to the ground corner on the board. Take a pic, let me see it. Solder two wires to the corners for In and ground. Take a battery connect the + end to the In wire, the negative end to the ground corner wire, touch the free hanging end of the resistor to ground, and check the voltage across the resistor with a multimeter.

And definitely leave the J1 jumper in place.

267

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/dj_ouro/voltage%20converter/0302002040.jpg

here is the converter wired up. 330 ohm resistor.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/dj_ouro/voltage%20converter/0302002053.jpg

using the multimeter, i touched one of the leds to the ground and one of the leds to the end of the resistor. i measured 5 volts. also, 2 wires were soldered to in and ground as told.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/dj_ouro/voltage%20converter/0302002100.jpg

for this image i touched the other end of the resistor to the ground point. i touched the 2 leds from my multimeter between the resistors and got zero volts.

268

Good shit.

Very good.

Hehe, I just meant have wires so you could attach the battery. If those two wires arent connect to anything, take them off; the only wires going to IN and the ground pad next to IN is the battery.

And here we see it acting poorly. I’m sorry if you already know this, but I do have to verify something though. Because there might be a ripple in the outgoing current, you’re going to need to take measurements using both the AC and DC versions. Most meters have separate settings for AC voltage, DC voltage, AC current, and DC current. If the vpack is working perfectly, you should see 0 volts AC, and 5 volts DC, with 0 AC current and about 11-20 mA of DC current. If there is a repeating ripple in the outgoing power, then the AC numbers will be higher and the DC numbers lower. If the pack is working properly, it should be so low it doesn’t affect our stuff, but better to be thorough.

Do the same measurement, but use the AC voltage setting as well. Chances are that AC will show 0ish however, but best to cover all bases.
There is a chance the battery isn’t able to put out enough current to keep up with the demands. Take two of those 330 ohm resistors, and connect them in parallel. press one pair of legs against one battery terminal, and use the meter to measure the DC current between the other resistor legs and the other end of the battery. If the battery has plenty of juice, we should see 9 milliamps of DC current, so the 20mA setting is fine; do not use a lower setting! If you have to move the red probe over to a separate spot for measuring current, make sure to do so. Mine have a ‘mA’ spot for the red probe for this.

If the battery isn’t outputting about 9mA, then it may not be able to feed enough current to keep the vpack happy even with the lone resistor. Use a fresh battery. If the battery can output 9mA-ish, then see about a replacement from sparkfun.

EDIT: Whoa, holy crap. I just crunched the numbers, and to get the 15 mA out needed for that resistor from a single 1.5V battery, it has to pull 62.5 mA. That’s hugemoungous. We may want to use two AA or AAA (or even C’s or D’s if you have them) in series as a 3.0v source. Then it’d only have to produce 31mA to do 15mA at the resistor

REEDIT: Maybe this is a suitable replacement? http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8999
Cheaper, too.

269

unfortunately, my multimeter dont have a seperate ac/dc slot. nor does it have an mA tester.

i’m confused on the process on wiring the two 330 ohm resistor and doubling up the AA battery. where do i wire the second resistor? and i’ll just have to double up the AA battery?

i’m tempted to get the replacement, but i’ve already spent $24 trying to get the thing to work so i want to avoid spending any more money if i can. i dont think they allow exchanges either.

270

Hmmm. All this optical stuff is getting the gears in my head grinding. I originally was just going to do a wired dual mod with the p360. Now I’m wondering if ordering the 6h battery and 5v step up converter from sparkfun would let me run a wireless setup. I could run the battery to a junctin block and split the3.7v to the boards and run the converter to the p360 for the 5v. I’d need an on off switch somewhere (either inline with the p360 or between the battery and junction block) to stop the stick from draining the battery while not in use.
What do you think guys?

271

ive done a bunch of reading and i cant find anything 100% verifying this… but i have an ascii optical that i mounted in a custom using an mc cthulhu so i need one of those voltage regulators to have it work with the ps2 side? it works for ps3, my ps2 is at a friends so i cant test that right now. anyways if anyone has any info that would be awesome

272

Well fellas… I got an Ascii Optical on eBay this morning. So soon I, too, will become a member of the Optical Army :lovin:

I would say Optical Elite, but I think that echelon is reserved for Sanwa Flash owners… :stuck_out_tongue:

273

how much u got it for on ebay the ascii…

274

Welcome to the club, hope you enjoy!

275

I got an SNK version Dreamcast Ascii and a near mint Agetec for 178 USD shipped. Not bad overall, only a little over my budget.

Thanks man! Same here. Now I just have to decide if this’ll go in my custom TE or the Zelda stick… hmmm… :bgrin:

276

I wanted to say congrats to whoever got the new flash1 from japan auction today from the same seller i did. I could have got it but im not paying 255 this time for. Anyways wanted to say congrats to the person who got it and im sure its srk member. All i know is prepare to pay at least 280 to 290 dollars for it.

link: http://59.157.181.124/cgi-bin/b.cgi?e98036680

277

thats alot of cash… anyone got any extra flash1 stickers? please!

278

Hmm maybe I’ll trade mine for a flash hdust washer? Maybe…

279

let me try to find one… Ive only got 2 washers for my 3 pcb’s. Anything else you may want or need? Ive got an original pink meshball with a ding in it.

280

Nah…if I end up trading it away it’s gonna have to be for a dust washer. I’ve only got the one sticker for my one pcb, which is why I’m leary of getting rid of it.