Used an Agetec PCB I bought from urth to make a piggyback dreamcast connection. I think it came out pretty clean. The only problem is my testing UPCB, the one thats just a board with two DB-15 connectors on it, doesn’t have the headers so I can test it, and I really don’t feel like opening up my HRAP2, since I have no interest in installing it (I’m quite happy with the Saturn cable and Innovation converter.) and of course I’m out of headers and can’t put any in to test. Damnit.
I still took tons of pics and will have another Instructable up on it soon. Here’s a taste of what it looks like finished. http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7577/dsc02710jpgwebhx5.th.jpg
The VMU board on the side is a Sega 4 bank memory card. No LCD or battery or speaker, so none of that damn BEEEEEEEEEEP when you power on the Dreamcast when your VMU batteries eventually die. It has 4 pages of VMU space (200+ blocks each), and I wired it up so the Select button will toggle between pages with that small green wire. Otherwise, everything’s wired up how you’d expect it to be. The ONLY thing that will connect this to the UPCB inside a stick case is a 16 pin ribbon cable to the DC_AUX connector on the UPCB.
Damn, I really wanted to test this, but I gotta wait to order more parts.
I did however finally discover GGPO. I’m experiencing the same ‘button held down’ problem others are. This is a FinalBurn or GGPO problem, NOT a UPCB problem! I havent tried them, but some people left workarounds: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=133298
Version 1.5 is out.
-PiggyBack mode is fully implemented and tested. While using a Piggyback controller, button remapping via the Programming button is NOT available, but Tournament Mode IS available.
-Tournament Mode is in. You can disable the Start button by pressing Select+Start+Up at any time, and re-enable the Start button by pressing Select+Start+Down. This does NOT require any special setup, it works in all configurations and systems.
The Agetec piggyback worked well. I gave up and tried it in my HRAP2 and it worked awesome, even the ‘press Select to toggle through the memory card pages’. However I still don’t need it. Anyone want to make an offer on a ready to install piggyback dreamcast, memory card and cord, ready to go?
BTW, board received, but my stick is mid-paintjob. I stripped all of the paint and was going for glossy white.
Here’s the thing. It’s one of Paik’s first sticks. If you don’t recall offhand, his are solid-block sticks that have the center routed out. I’m tring to figure out how the heck to get that db15 connector mounted!
Somewhere along the line in my head I translated db15 to vga connector. I was going to cut a VGA extension cable in half, use one end to hook to the UPCB, and the other half would be used for my first console cable. Oops…
So yeah. Any suggestions on how to get this thing mounted into a solid block of wood would be nice.
Oh, and I STILL Haven’t shipped that controller. Grrr…gotta get that done today.
Mounting the connector in a solid piece of wood would best be done by using a router, if you have one. Thats how I plan on mounting mine when I get it. Mine isnt a solid piece of wood, but it has a 3/4" wood frame that I am going to have to route a hole in for the connector.
Otherwise its going to be a lot harder but could still be possible. You would just have to carve out the area you want to mount the connector with a drill. Although that would be a lot of drilling.
Best way would be to find someone with a D-Sub 15 punch kit. A small sheet of metal with the shape punched out and four screw holes on the corners would be quite sturdy. You wouldn’t have to worry too much about the size of the hole you made in the wood, as long as its bigger than the 15 pin connector, and smaller than the piece of metal. Put the connector through the hole in the wood, and secure it to the metal sheet with some hex bolt/receptacle thingys that you see on the D-Sub connections on the back of your computer, and then screw the metal to the box.
Does this mean that button remapping is available now for non-piggyback controllers? I see that there is now a ‘programming’ file in with all the other download files. I know that part of that includes tournament mode, but the other part seems to be buttom remapping stuff.
If button remapping is up now, how exactly does it work?
I just put everything together on my PCB but there are still a few parts I was looking for which I didnt see order numbers for on the instructions. What I am looking for are the pins and connectors you used for the program and extra buttons, the ones in this picture: http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FPR/TX4N/F2ZL539N/FPRTX4NF2ZL539N.MEDIUM.jpg
Finally, would you know if Frys carries D-sub hoods with thumb screws? I looked around the website but couldnt find any. I only found ones without thumb screws. It woulc be much easier if I didnt have to order the hoods from somewhere else so I could save on shipping. I would buy them at the local Radio Shack but they also didnt have any with thumb screws.
The header pins you linked to would work just fine. You may want to take a look to see if they have any double row header pins. It’d be cleaner that way. The ‘notched for cleaner breaking’ is exactly what you think it is.
The jumpers you linked to are NOT the part that I used for the additional buttons. They are just jumpers, made to be placed and removed by hand, and automatically short the two pins they cover. You cannot connect a button to the header pins with those. I looked through the Fry’s site and did not see the connector I used, or any connector that would do the same. If you didn’t want to order the part from someplace else, the only recommendations I could make would be kinda hackish. You could get a small ribbon cable connector like: http://shop2.outpost.com/product/1910717
The spacing of the pins on these connectors is identical to the spacing on the board.
Secifically Digikey# WM2808-ND and a ten pack of WM2511-ND
When getting one of these to cut up into smaller, please note you cant cut between the pins; you have to destry a pin to separate them, so the 10 pin piece will get (Pin-Pin-Cut-Pin-Pin-Cut-Pin-Pin-Cut-Spare) just enough to take care of all three buttons with a spare pin ‘fudge factor’ in case of problems.
Edit: If you DO make an order from Digikey, get at least one or two of these D-Sub Hoods: 972-15SGE-ND (Gray) 972-15SBE-ND(Black) 972-15SR-ND (Red) 972-15SY-ND (Yellow). These things are well made, easier to put together, and hold on to the cable SOLID. I’m not a big fan of how they look, but they are the best hoods I’ve found yet. I know the cables using those hoods will last forever.
Thanks for the info. Sone more questions though, I saw that the jumper I posted comes in a ‘short type’ and ‘open type’, whats the difference between those two? I was assuming that one would automatically make the short and the other one would keep it as an open circuit allowing it to be attached to other things.
Also, is there any 30AWG wire that Digikey has that you know of which is around the price of what frys has? That was the main reason for me trying to order everything from there. The only 30AWG wire I could find on Digikey was at least $28.91 for 100ft. And being that I am only going to be using small amounts of it for the connectors its not worth it at all for me to spend that much.
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T072/P1881.pdf
The C2015*-100-ND wire is the cheapest I’ve seen there, but only goes to 24AWG. That 24AWG is what I use for most of my stuff. The 30AWG wire I use, ironically, I got from Fry’s when I last visited Vegas. Do a search for ‘kynar’ on Frys.com shows a 500’ for $20, 100’ for $8, and even a 50’ for $6. Heh, they have 1000’ spools for $30. Definitely get the spools and not the precut stuff.
Edit: oh hey, looks like Digikey does have similar wire:
K325-ND 30AWG blue 100’ for $11.17
Search the Digikey site for ‘WIRE KYNAR INS 30AWG’ to see all of the colors available.
You’d either have to open up the saturn pad and rewire it to a DB-15 that matches the neogeo output, or build/get a saturn->neogeo converter. I was talking about how to build one recent on neo-geo.com, and could throw one together for you if you have some sort of way of plugging in the saturn connector (like the female end of an extension cable).
Advice is always free. Implementing my advice, that’s usually the spendy part.
Man, a saturn to neogeo converter would be a heck of a lot cleaner than what I was thinking, since it would be usable with a stock pad. The last time I hacked a saturn pad, it threw the weight of the controller off.
I’ve got like 4 saturn extension cables for this project, so no worries there.
Were you basically thinking of doing the inverse of this:
Pretty much. three capacitors, one potentiometer to adjust the frequency of the bank checks, and a PIC. http://neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147184
You looking to put the saturn->neo converter in the project box with the UPCB, or a separate project box and connecting the two with a DB-15?
If you put it in the same project box, you could use the L and R as the extra buttons, and ABCXYZ as the main six. If you used a separate box and connected with the DB-15, you’d only have ABCXYZ as the main six, start, and the L or R could be Select and the other shoulder button could be used for button remapping in the Saturn->Neo converter.
I think single project box would be a better idea, as I’m used to using at least the right shoulder trigger for e.g. sword in silvergun or bombs in ikaruga. Kinda hard to get that and select + remapping buttons though.
Hrrm, I wonder if plans for a saturn -> upcb box might not be a selling point for you . . . people pay stupid money for psx / usb saturn pads, and from what I’ve heard they arent as good as the original.
I thought about putting in code to have it act as a Saturn->Whatever converter or PSX->Whatever converter, but I’m worried about the timing. In order to do it, I’d have to have it periodically interupt to check the status of the original pad, and if that happened the same time it was sending data out to the console, it could glitch and get unreliable. Making a separate converter like we’re talking about here wont have that problem because there’s two separate microcontrollers.
‘short type’ has metal in it so the two pins it’s on are shorted together. The other is just plastic that doesn’t short them; leaves them ‘open’.
