Sporniket's log on hardware stuff

[sporniket]

Another fancy of mine, that I will try to make this semester.

It has been some times now that I wanted to make a game controller that would combine the 2 standards joysticks ports into one, in other words fuse two joysticks to get a game controller with a directional pad and 6 buttons. By curiosity, I also looked into the enhanced joystick ports, so that it could also be plugged there, and some text on the net about it like this FAQ, I ended up with the goal to be able to use the full Jaguar game controller (and maybe the Team Tap adapter, but I may have a bandwidth problem to send data to the Atari ST at a suitable pace). The magic being performed by a basic Raspberry pi Pico, and with some nice amenities : a bypass switch to be able to use legacy joystick (and more importantly the mouse !) without unplugging anything, and an OLED display and setting buttons.

So for now I just have a schematics drafted as quickly as life (and my taste for ordered graphics) allowed me.

atari-st-mod-enhanced-joypad-port-adapter.png

[Darklord]

That certainly looks interesting! :)

[sporniket]

Thanks for the encouragement.

And it will be better if I wire the mosfets correctly for the level shifter... :oops:

atari-st-mod-enhanced-joypad-port-adapter.png

[sporniket]

I have secured a Jaguar gamepad...

2023-02-09--jagpad.jpg

The schematic has changed a little bit (essentially the wiring to make easier to place the traces)

atari-st-mod-enhanced-to-standard-joystick-ports-adapter--hardware.png

The PCB is almost done (but I have to get some parts to check the footprints)

Capture d’écran du 2023-02-09 13-11-31.png

Soon I will be able to getting started with coding on the Pico (using c++)

[sporniket]

I have also secured a TeamTap ; in fact I bought 2 of them, so that at one point I can disassemble one and see how it is made, and hopefully remake one.

2023-02-15--teamtap-jaguar.jpg

[Darklord]

Wow, thought those were pretty rare and hard to acquire... :shock:

[sporniket]

I don't know @Darklord , it is from an ebay seller "myatari" located on the US, with prices that seem fair to me : https://www.ebay.com/itm/143925622793

I bought my Jaguar game controller from him too.

[DoG]

... it is from an ebay seller "myatari" located on the US, with prices that seem fair to me : https://www.ebay.com/itm/143925622793 ...

I think that is Bruce and B&C. https://www.myatari.com/

[sporniket]

good to know. Their site is partially down though with most hardware page stating that their servers crashed around 2018.

Anyway for me, buying from ebay to this seller went well and is easier than best electronics.

EDIT: looking at the receipt, it is from a "Bruce C." based at El Dorado, with an ebay store called "Atari Sales and Service" https://www.ebay.com/str/atarisalesandservice, so it is very likely that you are right @DoG

[sporniket]

Another thing I got this week, for cheap, a defunct ST motherboard. Some chips have been removed. I'll see what I can do with it.

2023-02-16--defunct-st-motherboard.jpg

But first I will have to clean it.