Wanting to hire: Fixer of Cthulhu bug

Tech Talk
1

Eureka!

I remember this incident whew tryin g to fiond a low pingway to hook up an S-Vide connection to both a streaming device and a CRT with no delay on the CRT TV:

Slpittng analog video signals weakens them to the point that neither device can get a picutre

I could play on the CRT TV, but not the video capture device. I could also record and watch live play off the footage in a delayed way, not live on CVRT TV. This worked singly, but not together in an S-Video Y. Then I noticed I unplugged one and he other came on,. Vice versa too, both even with the Y plugged in one way…

The solution is porwerig before the split. Nw I don’t know what a ground is i electonic is exactly but al of them have (or the Edladdin Coleco PCB has 2) I’ve heard the term al the time in electronics, anf every electronic thing has one.

[details=“a possibvlilty is a power shortage due to splitting.”]
Currently there are multiple ground wires in one hole due to the colceo haviong 2
“grounds” (not sure it it’s proper to call them grounds when there are 2 of them.
) and having a button swapper where any wire could have any function, therefore either ground.

Al the other joysticks i see have the joystick in a single trail chained, all attached to one pin. This does not look electronically the same. If the Cthulhu is either over- or underpowererd, ad if the dreamcast is the only one that work, and the Dreamcast has difereent power conditions, then that makes sense.[/details]

What I think I need.

That means I need a (possibly Powered) collar that goes by the PCBN end, that has an 18-1 split and connects cosest to the PCB, and the other half runs into enough power of an 18 way splitter (extras are okay becuas emempty splits don’t lose power.

2

The Cthulhu hasn’t been actively worked on in some time, and Toodles; for all intents and purposes as far as I am aware; is no longer developing products for the FGC. While I did read your previous post on the matter, I did some simple google research after reading , and was able to find a pinout and soldering diagram of a Colecovision controller (don’t know if I’m in the right ballpark here). My hand isn’t really steady enough to do stuff like this, but if I understand the information I viewed correctly, there’s a single ground connection on the PCB, and it would be following the lines of a padhack essentially to get what you are asking for. I’ll link the resources below that I used for easy viewing.

Potential PCB Layout:

Key and Pinouts for Coleco controllers (there’s a dedicated section, you can ignore the arduino section):

3

Okay maybe it’s not original, but my information is based on edladdin.com 's Colecovision PCB. which is the 4-button I’m trying to make a discrete fight stick work on a Real Colecovision.

Thinking ahead

Also that item is worthless to me on the top of Page 1, because it has 1 button.

Also I read the keypad buttons are not one key one wire. Pressing multiple keys at once causes funny things to happen, so it’s coded, an\de a decoder is not what I need.

Does the ribbon cable of that’s attached to the extra keypad carry discrete inputs on each rib? If that’s the case then the only other question is, how easy is it to get 3.5 mm holes and electrical currents to actuate the keys. Is it easy enough for a basic shop guy who knows how to solder?

Also that same keypad can be used in 5200. Jaguar, and Intelllivision as well as (if you want to detach your hard wired comtroller, or even play the US version in the first place) Arcadia 2001. Is that a common ribbon cable where I can buy ad extension?

fI so, if f my experience Y-ing a 2600 and coleco contrller is right, (except the Gemini paddle ones) most Y adapter act like an “Or Switch logic” ( AM I right?) a the keypad is discrete but cided in a PCB, ten after the edladdin, you should Y wire the controller both parts are in Coleco Code, if you want both a plug in keypad and buttonsd equalling key presses in 2 different places, then should the Y adapter bne put after both the real Coleco keypad and the post-coded fight stick?

If that’s the case, I want this set up to anticipa\te INTV and 5200. A cradle that csn go on either sde of my stick fr lefty ad rightie, slip a keypad in for direct access, put route the burton mapper through the keypad and buttons can control Red Yellow, and Blue doors, and Dog, as well as typing on the keypad. (1,2,3,5)

So, does the Edladdin Coleco PCB care whether a regular Coleco controller or a super action one is plugged, because I found 2 games that require a Standard Controller. Something about the wiring ruins the runtime game. Those games are QBert’s Qubes and Actrivision Decathlon. .

Finally unite the 9-pins and insert in colecovision and have a joysick with Keypad.

If you do that, will it work on both the real cotroller and Modern controller? If you have the suer aciotn, can you roll the super action roller wheel ad have it work?

BNut I awaznt to reuyse good parts. I the coleco controller has one ground pe button and all other buttons share ponen ground., then should you unit the gournds as soon as possible.

Finally do all ground wires have to reach the grond, or can they the ground. It mifght not bccause splittig cause power loss per line, so it’s safer to do the first, becuase by then, you know it’s not C\oleco.

4

Eureka!

I remember this incident whew tryin g to fiond a low pingway to hook up an S-Vide connection to both a streaming device and a CRT with no delay on the CRT TV:

Slpittng analog video signals weakens them to the point that neither device can get a picutre

I could play on the CRT TV, but not the video capture device. I could also record and watch live play off the footage in a delayed way, not live on CVRT TV. This worked singly, but not together in an S-Video Y. Then I noticed I unplugged one and he other came on,. Vice versa too, both even with the Y plugged in one way…

The solution is porwerig before the split. Nw I don’t know what a ground is i electonic is exactly but al of them have (or the Edladdin Coleco PCB has 2) I’ve heard the term al the time in electronics, anf every electronic thing has one.

Summary

Currently there are multiple ground wires in one hole due to the colceo having 2
“grounds” (not sure it it’s proper to call them grounds when there are 2 of them.
) and having a button swapper where any wire could have any function, therefore either ground.

All the other joysticks i see have the joystick in a single trail chained, all attached to one pin. This does not look electronically the same. If the Cthulhu is either over- or underpowered, ad if the dreamcast is the only one that work, and the Dreamcast has different power conditions, then that makes sense.

What I think I need.

That means I need a (possibly Powered) collar that goes by the PCBN end, that has an 18-1 split and connects cosest to the PCB, and the other half runs into enough power of an 18 way splitter (extras are okay becuas emempty splits don’t lose power.