TI99 working! Joystick not working...

[lucifershalo]

Eventually I bought a TI99 with a scart interface

and it is working!!!

 

but the dual joystick is not....

is it notorious that it breaks and if so what is the problem most of the time?

 

thanks

 

it is the official one

[sometimes99er]

http://nouspikel.group.shef.ac.uk/ti99/joystick.htm

[jchase1970]

something that gets me from time to time is simply check the alpha lock button, the alpha lock overrides the joystick as the both use the keyboard bus.

[marc.hull]

Eventually I bought a TI99 with a scart interface

and it is working!!!

 

but the dual joystick is not....

is it notorious that it breaks and if so what is the problem most of the time?

 

thanks

 

it is the official one

 

You do have it plugged into the left side and not the back right ?

[lucifershalo]

Eventually I bought a TI99 with a scart interface

and it is working!!!

 

but the dual joystick is not....

is it notorious that it breaks and if so what is the problem most of the time?

 

thanks

 

it is the official one

 

You do have it plugged into the left side and not the back right ?

 

OMG ithought it needed to be plugged into the expansion port

 

yes, i plugged it into the left side

[nathanallan]

Are you using a Ti joystick? What's your setup?

 

Atari and other joysticks don't work on the TI, they need an adapter. AFAIK only TI ones will work on it. The Atari adapters are fairly cheap to get, I have one; It splits it tinto two ports for two 2600 pinned joysticks.

[sometimes99er]

Atari to TI Joystick Adapter

 

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/hardware/cables/joystick.html

[lucifershalo]

it is an official TI dual joystick

but I think it is defect

 

yes, I already saw the schematics

but I am useless at building it

 

 

where did you buy your adapter,nathanallan?

[sometimes99er]

Search ebay for something like "atari ti 99 4a joystick adapter"

 

 

Edit: He he, some of those adapters cost as much as a system with working TI joysticks.

 

They don't have any adapters here, but some different joysticks here and there.

 

http://www.texintreasures.com

 

Back in the day, I made one of these

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue39/HOW_TO_BUILD_YOUR_OWN_TI-99_4A_JOYSTICK_ADAPTER.php

Edited September 21, 2010 by sometimes99er

[lucifershalo]

I made a search and found the texintreasures site

but the only joystick that he is selling

is one that needs an adapter...useful!

[sometimes99er]

ebay item no. 260656434660 and 170532534061. Expensive, but the last one allows offer.

[zylon]

Amiga power sticks work if they're the Y-cable versions or you could splice one from a DB-9 Y-cable. That's what I did until I found a wico adaptor at a price I agreed with.

[lucifershalo]

as I have 2 TI99 computers

one is not working properly (some keys are non responsive and the video output is flaky)

I tried the TI joysticks on both

so my first conclusion is like I said, that the joystick are defect

 

but I also have the MBX module

I tried and the MBX joystick doesnt seem to work either

 

3 conclusions:

-I am unlucky and thejoystick port on both computers is not working

 

-I am even more unlucky : the TI and MBX joysticks are both damaged

 

-I am in deep sh.... the 2 joysticks AND the 2 joystick ports are not working.......

[sometimes99er]

Maybe the first joystick fried the port on both computers - if something like that is even possible ?

[lucifershalo]

is that possible??

[sometimes99er]

Well, when you modify the joystick port as described below, one should take care not to connect +5V to any other pin/pad bla bla bla.

 

http://nouspikel.group.shef.ac.uk/ti99/joystick.htm#modifying%20the%20port

[matthew180]

From looking at the schematics it looks like the worst thing you can do to the joystick port it to connect pin 2 to pin 7, but even then you would be connecting +5VDC to -5VDC through a 1.5K resistor, which would only produce 6ma of current while that particular stick position was held. And, all that would only happen while the joystick was being polled by software.

 

I don't think you could blow anything by plugging the wrong joystick in, and if you do, it would be easy to fix.

 

Matthew

[lucifershalo]

thanks,

for all the replies

but I am not good enough to create my own adapter

 

I will open thecomputer and see if I can detect something wrong with the joystick port

I am sure that I wont see anything wrong or wont know what to look and test

[sometimes99er]

but I also have the MBX module

I tried and the MBX joystick doesnt seem to work either

Wasn't the MBX joystick supposed to be put in the MBX module ?

 

[lucifershalo]

yes

ofcourse thats what I did

but the MBX module isplugging into the joystick port among other

so my assumption is that the "joystick commands"of the MBX are going through the joystick port...

 

sorry if I gave only half explanation

[nathanallan]

It's already answered, but I got my Y-cable adapter from ebay a while back. Only after that did I figure out that both my TI's were broken, both need keyboards

 

There is this one store that I can't remember exactly, that sells TI stuff specifically, a dedicated website. I tried looking for it but can't find it. He has all the parts you would ever need to get that rig up and running, and then some!

 

Does anybody know how to get there???

[matthew180]

You can get keyboards on ebay all the time. Radio Shack in the U.S. used to sell them, and I have even seen them at garage sales here in the U.S. There are quite a few auctions right now and you could pick up a completely spare console pretty cheap.

 

If the keyboard is causing the problem, it is really easy to open the case and disconnect the keyboard to test... Hmm, but how would you then select a program that uses the joystick? It is a catch 22. I suppose you could start the TI, then unplug the keyboard with power on, but you are taking a risk doing that.

 

I am also willing to fix 99/4A's if anyone wants to go through the hassle of shipping it to me. I would just need the motherboard, which should help keep costs down. If I get enough spare consoles, I could start a "swap" service, and that would also help me in my plan to take over the world by first replacing all the 9918A's in all 99/4A's with an F18A! Muhh Ha Ha Ha.

 

Matthew