Weird. You sure the PIC is programmed? Pop out the PIC and try again. I frankly don’t know that well the power on values of some of the pins, and if your pullups are 10k and three of the pins default to output low for some reason, the math would match what you’re seeing.
Instruction for setting up a common ground Madcatz pad for Piggybacking is up.
Comments welcome as always.
Ok, at first I?m going to be really vague here in respect to toodels. If requested I?ll be happy to go in to detail.
My main goal is to ask you (toodels) if you think this will work. My attempts to contact you via instructables or email only reveal no answers. Since I?m not one to assume or jump to conclusions I?m gong to leave that as is. Figured this is the only place I see you actively commenting. So with that on to my question.
In short I?m making the opposite of what you make. You convert a joystick (arcade) to any console. I convert any console joystick to usb. Like you I?m open source, though maybe not as detailed ( propts on that ). My question would be do you think I could piggy back on your device via a USB protocol.
Like I said I?m staying vague so I don?t step on any toes here and in respect to your work. I only hope that we can help one another out. If I don?t get a response from you I?ll gladly use the door I came in upon and never bother you again. Don?t mean to sound as though there is any bad vibes here just that no response is generally, not always but generally a bad thing.
Either way, wonderful job on the project thus far…
Sure, go for it. All of the USB code is just tweaks to the Microchip USB code, so if you stuck to the USB code, its not even my code you’d be dealing with. If it were me doing it though, I’d seriously consider another device to do it. It looked like your already familiar with raphnet, so there is truly GPL’ed USB code the much cheaper Atmel’s. Since everything will have at most 2 wires going out, the 28 pin controllers will be plenty, and the higher clock speed possible with the Atmega8 or Atmega168 of 16 or 20 MIPS gives you a much better fighting chance of communicating with Dreamcast peripherals than the PIC has with 12 MIPs.
You may also want to bug mojochan about getting off his ass and releasing his code.
http://joystick.world3.net/
So your suggesting to use the same firmware the UPCB uses in my amtel? looks like mojochan is using the same design (Retro Adapter) but not very many controllers supported. Interesting though thx.
Not at all. I’m suggesting using one of the open source Atmel USB firmwares and write your own code to query the controller(s). All of the code in the UPCB is for listening to the console and pretending to be a controller. You need to write firmware that pretends to be the console and listens to the controller. As of right now, there is 0 code in the UPCB that does that. About the only help the UPCB code can give you is the details about how the protocols work in the .h files.
Oh I think I threw you off, my fault…
No I have already got the inputs. I can already connect any controller i want to usb, I just want to connect a device that would allow me to connect to a console.
This way i could use any controller on a pc, or any controller on any system. I get a lot of requests for this.
[ Some game joystick ] -> [BlissBox] -> [UPCB] -> [ selected game console ]
or
[ Some game joystick ] -> [BlissBox] -> [PC ] (this I have)
BlissBox being my device.
Sure, that’s doable. Have your box output one line for the directions and buttons, active low, and connect it; the input DB-15 would probably be easiest, but you can wire it to the stick and button connectors if you prefer. All you’d need is to have your box convert from whatever controller they use to a Neo-geo pinout, and connect it up.
If I understand you right your saying to send the un-processed signals form the joystick to your db15 cable bypassing the my firmware. This would work fine, however not all joysticks use this paradigm. For example the Dream cast has its own funky usb protocol. I was thinking if I already have a universal signal I could just piggy back on the UPCB sort of like a liaison.
Nope. Im saying you’ll need twelve lines; four for the directions, up to six play buttons, and a line for start and select. So, if your customer is using a NES controller, the NES controller plugs into your box, yur box sends the clock line and latch signal to the NES controller and read what it says so you know what buttons and directions are pressed. Your box then sets the twelve lines to match what the NES controller said was the status; so if B is pressed, you drop the line for Short low.
I do. One line per button/direction, active low. AKA NeoGeo pinout.
Or you can wait until converter support is done. That’s what’s been planned for the 2.0 release. But, it won’t need any more hardware. If you want your hardware to play a part, the way described above is the way to do it.
ok with you now. Going to ponder this a bit, thx for the suggestions.
LOL customer… Na all open source though a lot of people are too lazy to build one them self so what the heck ill build it.
I hardened up and just plugged the UPCB in, and now my computer is all bro^H^H^H perfectly fine 
Plugged the microcon into the upcb, plugged it in, got the upcb showing up. Unplugged, held fierce+rh, plugged in, microcon showed up.
In summation, everything is just fine Your instructable is a lot neater than mine though 
Cheers,
–flux
Glad to hear it. Post up some pics to the custom stick thread. I’ve only seen pictures of two sticks with a UPCB in it so far, and damnit there has to be more out there.
Just wanted to say for anybody watching this thread that despite my problems with the UPCB, Toodles has been ridiculously helpful with trying to troubleshoot and correct my issues.
Anybody’s who on the fence about picking one up should know that Toodles won’t leave you hanging if something goes wrong.
I absolutely agree.
It’s also like Christmas every time there’s an update, how cool is it to update your arcade stick?!?!
EDIT: IT FUCKING WORKS!!!
After testing it on the ps3, I finally verified everything was working correctly in the hardware. Which only left Vista as the culprit.
I just did some googling and found that the SP1 installation apparently did some strange stuff to the inf files. It’s totally random, and some USB devices will work while others won’t (which is why I didn’t think it was that before). I deleted the infcache, and after it rebuilt them it came up!
:rock::rock::rock::rock::rock:
sorry for being such a noob people. i have a pcb that came with my mas stick. when i plug it into my ps2, i see “please insert a controller into slot 1/2” on the screen. the pcb is over 5 years old, does that make a difference? i’m finally gonna fix this problem, and have no problem soldering. just need to know if the board can still be used, or if i should just padhack my ps2 controller.
Well, at you asked in Tech Talk, but that has nothing to do with a UPCB, so go ask in the Newbie thread stickied at the top of Tech Talk.
Hot damn, glad to hear it. before your edit, I saw it acted weird on the 360. I just wanted to be clear, hold down the Fierce and Roundhouse before plugging in. Thye must be held down when plugging in.
n/m, didnt work
Well, I got the bypass to work, although I’m still scratching my head on how to fit the pcb in an agetec case. Didn’t try it on the 360 but if it works in windows should be no problem.
Toodles, how many buttons does the UPCB support on PCs? I made my stick with 6 face + 4 “side” buttons. I only get 2 of those 4 recognized in the controller panel.