New project - A600 Mouse/Joystick adapter wih PS2 support

[kipper2k]

Hi All,

I have been mucking about with a new idea...

Update ... 31 May 2011. The board has changed considerably since this project has
started and there are a few improvements to design and capabilities... read on

Update ... 4 July 2011. The board will be in my hands Wednesday, pictures and prices should be ready on Friday... read on





This board will plug into both the mouse and joystick port on the A600 and have a joystick pass through connector that will allow those controllers with wide or replacement connectors to plug in with no problems.

The board also has an onboard PS2 mouse adapter built into it so you can plug in a PS2 mouse directly onto the board. The contol PIC chip will be socketed (ignore the SMD type chip layout) so that people can remove and reprogram the PIC chip to try to improve the behaviour of the mouse etc.

I am also looking at trying to implement USB mouse capability too, Need more info on that though.

And finally i want to add the circuit for the Playstation controller as well, i just need to track down Paul and talk to him (not an easy job).

Dependant on interest i may make a batch. As it stands now with the PS2 mouse support the cost would be ~$25. The pricing for a Cocolino PS2 adapter at Elbox is $43.95US

Let me know your thoughts (constructive please

PS. Don't trust the wiring on this, its a very early beta.

[Amigafanboi]

I'd definately want one of these.

[Ebster]

if they are cd32pad-compatible i am definately interested as well!

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Ebster

if they are cd32pad-compatible i am definately interested as well!

This should work on all Amigas, The spacing between the A1200 mouse and joystick sockets are slightly differant than the A600. So a cable may be required if i can't find a way to make it universal. (maybe by using pin headers it may solve that problem.

I will check out the CD32, i don't see any reason why it wouldn't work, maybe someone who knows more may be able to better answer that question.

[ws1968]

I might be interested. Would be great if it could be mounted internally in an A600 (by removing the original ports for example)

[fitzsteve]

@Kipper,

Another awesome project

Thanks for all your hard work

Will be keeping an eye on this one.

Steve.

[cosmicfrog]

Indeed
I will probably be interested when you get the Playstation controller working

keep up the good work kipper and have a ribbit on me, Ribbit

[mfilos]

I'm up for one as well!

[voyager]

count me in to

[T_hairy_bootson]

Could you make it autoswitching as well?

So I can leave two joysticks plugged in as well as a PS/2 or USB mouse.

I would buy more than one.

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

Could you make it autoswitching as well?

So I can leave two joysticks plugged in as well as a PS/2 or USB mouse.

I would buy more than one.

I'll try to make it as flexible as people want me to, Any input is welcome (Any input welcome... get the double meaning there , after all, its for us

[thgill]

Damn...and I just paid for one of mkl's PS/2 mouse adapters.

Well, I'll take one of these too!

[alexh]

I would be interested too... but are you fitting PS/2 connectors? Or USB connectors (for legacy PS/2 mode)?

For Mice there is no need for REAL USB mode as most support PS/2 over USB.

Keyboards are another thing...

Supporting true USB devices would IMO require a prohibitively expensive conversion chip.

Supporting a PSOne/Two joy pad would be easy but the connectors too expensive

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by alexh

I would be interested too... but are you fitting PS/2 connectors? Or USB connectors (for legacy PS/2 mode)?

For Mice there is no need for REAL USB mode as most support PS/2 over USB.

Keyboards are another thing...

Supporting true USB devices would IMO require a prohibitively expensive conversion chip.

Hi Alexh

I will fit the actual PS2 connector to the board so you just plug in the PS2 mouse directly into the board, USB looks like it is a rather complicated setup and i think it requires a lot of thought so USB may be put on hold rather than hold the project up for too long. (If anyone can provide detailed help, be much appreciated.

Here is the link for the PS2 adapter i was so kindly pointed to...

http://www.students.tut.fi/~leinone3/ps2mhiiri627/


The Playstation adapter circuit i can actually get that circuit embedded onto the board and i will use my official adapter to make it work on the board. I'm not going to tread on Paul Willinghams work and will only put on pre-programmed chips that he provides to me or allows me to program the Pic16F630 with his code.

I think i will actually put the circuit and adapter on the board and that way people could actually remove the chip from their official adapter and put it on the board. It is not the best solution, if anyone knows Paul and can let him know what i would like to do then please talk to him.

One more thing, because the board actually plugs into both mouse and joystick port the code that i have found supports the wheel on the mouse apparently close to 100% using freeware drivers. (time will tell).

[kipper2k]

Good news, ( i think)

I have found a website that shows the schematics and some code for the PSX to Atari, so i will take a closer look and see if this will work. If people wanted i could incorporate this schematic with a socketed PIC also so people can modify the code

http://www.tgkirk.110mb.com/joystick.htm

any help as always greatly appreciated.

So now i hopefully have a couple of options if i can't get hold of Paul

edit... The cost of an adapter cable from PSX controller to the 9 pin connector would cost about $7.00 and the added parts/circuitry for the psx portion would add about $7 to the cost of the board. Dare i mention this adapter could also be used on an Atari

[cv643d]

I am interested, might miss the batch run so would be happy if you could PM me when it is ready for sale :-)

[alexh]

The PIC code a PSOne->Amiga joypad adapter is open source and freely available.

http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/appe_v32

Would it not be possible to use a bigger PIC and incorporate both the Keyboard, Mouse and CD32 adapter code and have some switchless mod method of enabling them?

FYI : There was an Atari ST adapter called JeST which was quite a cool PCB design. The three circles are a retention method by which the PSOne cable goes through the centre and is held with a cable tie going through both of the other two holes. Then the cable had a heat shrink sleeve on it.

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16066

I tried to get Alison interested enough to make a combined ST/Amiga version of PeST (Mouse) and JeST (PSOne Joypad) adapters with 9-pin connectors which were compatible with A600 ports (i.e. no wings) but nothing came of it.

[kipper2k]

Seeing as i am building this i would like to get the most out of it that i can so i will use the schematic for the ps2 adapter that will work for both Atari and Amiga.

The primary goal is still to make this a direct plugin for the A600 and then try to make it work/fit the best i can for the other models/Atari.

Some good news is that i was able to get hold of Paul reference the Playstation portion so hopefully we can work something out. Here is the specs on his PSX adapter.

www.kipper2k.com/PSX-Adapter.pdf

Ballpark figures as to the cost if i can get the PSX implemented too will be ~$32 for the board and ~$7.00 for a patch cable from PS2 controller to the adapter board.

I am looking at less than 8 weeks to get this up and running

[Amigafanboi]

A worthy project, i'm watching this with great interest

[StrategyGamer]

AFAIK I want at least 4 of them if they
1. Each cost $64.00 or less.
2. Are compatible with ALL my Amigas. A500, A2000, A3000, A4000, A1200, etc. etc.

Would I be allowed to play 4-player games with all 4 players using separate Playstation controllers if I had 4 of your gizmos?

That is the reason I want 4 of them.

Once I have guaranteed proof that your gizmos work perfectly I will probably buy a total of 8 of them. But I don't want to buy 8 of them and then find out woops there was a weird bug that ruins my gaming experience.