Sega Megadrive official 6 Button Pad on CD32/A1200?!?

[Amiga1992]

I will revive this thread because I got a CD32.
Did anyone in these past 6 years invent a way to use a Sega 6 button pad with the CD32? The original pad is big and clunky, although not that bad, but I still prefer the Sega one to any pad in the whole planet.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akira

I will revive this thread because I got a CD32.
Did anyone in these past 6 years invent a way to use a Sega 6 button pad with the CD32? The original pad is big and clunky, although not that bad, but I still prefer the Sega one to any pad in the whole planet.

The CD32 has a preprogramed IC, that outputs the extra key information.
I dont think a sega pad would output the correct information.

[Jope]

I actually researched the Megadrive six button issue some time ago, the protocol is more complicated than for the three button one.

A microcontroller is needed, but to my knowledge no-one's written the code for it.

[Amiga1992]

Did anyone hack a CD32 pad into a Sega Megadrive enclosure, or something of the like? What f I use the contacts and buttons of the Megadrive pad but the logic of the CD32 pad?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akira

Did anyone hack a CD32 pad into a Sega Megadrive enclosure, or something of the like? What f I use the contacts and buttons of the Megadrive pad but the logic of the CD32 pad?

That would work, if you wired the correct buttons to the correct legs on IC.
So you would be replacing the original MD Controller IC with the CD32 one.

[Amiga1992]

I need a CD32 pad and a Megadrive pad to destroy...

[s2325]

I think that was nice idea:

[amiman99]

Here is a schematic for the CD32 controller.
http://gerdkautzmann.de/cd32gamepad/cd32gamepad.html

[robinsonb5]

I did build a PIC-based 6-button Megadrive to CD32 adapter once. The project got shelved when I got interested in FPGAs and the Minimig (not helped by my not having a fully-functional 6-button Sega pad to play with, either) - but if anyone's interested I'm sure I'll still have the PIC source and circuit diagrams somewhere.

[Amiga1992]

YES! That would be just AWESOME.
Do you think it could be achieved with Arduino too? Since those are widely available and easier to program than PICs... Now there's an idea...

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by Akira

YES! That would be just AWESOME.

OK if nothing materialises within a few days give me a nudge! (At work now, so can't do anything on the spot, and I might well have forgotten by the time I get home!)

Do you think it could be achieved with Arduino too? Since those are widely available and easier to program than PICs... Now there's an idea...

Yeah I don't see why not - as long as there are enough IOs on whichever board you use. You need 14 in total, 7 for the Megadrive pad and 7 for the Amiga. The code will need re-writing of course - it's currently PIC assembler. (16F877 if memory serves.)

[Amiga1992]

I guess that if someone has the logic of how the PIC works figured out, you could rewrite it from scratch so it works in Arduino. This could be a good learning project for me to start using Arduino, maybe

[robinsonb5]

I remembered

Stripboard layout for the adapter is attached, and PIC asssembly source can be found here:
http://retroramblings.net/PIC/

What I can't remember now, though, is how well it worked, or whether the sega-pad reading code needed further attention. I don't currently have a fully-working 6-button pad, which is what stalled the project.

[Amiga1992]

Oh man this could be fantastic. I'm gonna investigate this further and see if I can make an Arduino version of it.

Thank you very much!! I love the EAB

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by Akira

Thank you very much!! I love the EAB

No problem

Keep us posted - let us know how you get on

I've just uploaded a couple of CD32 pad test programs, which might help:
http://retroramblings.net/PIC/CD32Test.lha

This might be useful too: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/infopg/segasix.txt

The CD32 protocol is time-critical, so you'll probably need to connect the CD32 Sel pin to an interrupt pin on the Arduino, so you can react very quickly when the select line drops.

[johey]

I just found this thread.

Akira: Did you manage to encode the CD32 protocol with AVR? I've made something you might be interested in, even if it is not fully working yet. https://github.com/johey/superpad

[Twiggy]

Old thread I know, but has anyone made any progress with this?

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by twiggy

Old thread I know, but has anyone made any progress with this?

I built an adapter using a PSOC4 prototype board -
Background information here:

http://retroramblings.net/?p=853

Wiring details: http://retroramblings.net/?p=912
Project on Github: https://github.com/robinsonb5/SegaToCD32

[Twiggy]

Nice. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to reading the ramblings.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by robinsonb5

I built an adapter using a PSOC4 prototype board -
Background information here:

http://retroramblings.net/?p=853

Wiring details: http://retroramblings.net/?p=912
Project on Github: https://github.com/robinsonb5/SegaToCD32

I have robinsonb5's adapter, was testing it for him for a long while, it's great! Would recommend anyone building one.

Have you done any changes since the version I have, mate? Should I update the software on the prototype board?