RetroGameGirl

Hello, I am wondering if boards for this are available, if so, I would love 2

flat rate box USPS It is no more expensive than shipping anything to anywhere else in the USA

Thats what I said XD "here with a rubber band as a proof of concept, but perhaps drilling a small hole under each one". I was thinking of a small hole, then fitting a tiny screw, similar to how you hook up a servo for a model airplane.

True, I don't have a vectrex to test that sort of thing on so I have not really considered solutions for it. The most experience I have with that console is recapping the board to get them working again, and that was years ago for a friend. Edit: I did look on indestructibles and came across this http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/vec_psx_adap.html That looks like a neat solution.

Why not do something like this ? http://www.flickr.com/photos/14482990@N08/sets/72157620164985374/ They basically use a set of resistances to give direction.

Just a random thought I had when thinking about the original not centering, why not use a spring to pull each pots down to the mid position, I am illustrating it here with a rubber band as a proof of concept, but perhaps drilling a small hole under each one to attach a small spring that has a loop on each end, pulling it to the proper mid position. This would aid the original rubber boot. There are walls on each side of the pots that could be used as a possible mounting position. I also had another idea, of using 2 springs to do basically the same thing, this might be useful for the bottom pot as the possible mounting positions are a bit limited without getting creative. This doesnt do much for the button response, but that can be fixed with either gold contacts or other methods. In place of a rubber band, I was thinking of using small springs, like these Anyway, just a random thought on how to make the original joysticks self center without a huge modification. Cheers

I will take you up on that LOL I would love to try repairing one, maybe do a video teardown and repair on my channel Failing that, maybe converting it :>

Thanks! Glad to be here ! Actually, for the 5200 analog simulation I was considering using a small microcontroller, low power to tap off the +5V on the controller port) and then accept the very small analog resistance of something like a psp analog stick to then possibly drive a transistor "relay" type setup for an array of resistors to more accuratly simulate the analog feel. Of course there are other ways to do this as well, depending on how the stick is that you are using. You can also use an analog PC controller and add capacitors to it. Which you can look at here if interested -> http://www.atarihq.c...0faq/06_04.html Either way I might see about maybe building another controller, perhaps into an NES joypad such as the NES Max. :> PSP analog stick --> http://www.adafruit....CFWxyQgodxm0A2Q Pinout for 5200 controller port -> http://old.pinouts.r...00_pinout.shtml

HA ! Funny :>

Actually I have, that is why I made custom controllers for those systems as well LOL Also, the Tac-2 is one of my favorite joysticks of all time

YAY! It really is one of my favorite retro controllers of all time Rather see someone kill an NES controller instead. I might try my hand at this project again, perhaps for a small D-pad style controller with the keypad in the middle that again uses an even more precise resistor array to allow proper "analog" game control for games like breakout.

woah, a trackball as the case? that seems like such a waste of the best controller atari ever made for the 5200 *cry*

I specifically joined the forum for this thread LOL But now that I am here, I am taking a look into perhaps software development. I have a few ideas that might be fun. I am mostly a hardware person, so software is my weak side. We all have to start somewhere! The little 5200 controller in the atari 2600 case (it used to be E.T.) was a fun experiment that I may recreate as it has been years since I did that build. I was considering using a similar method with a small MCU, perhaps a texas instruments low power one since I have 2 launchpads not being used, in conjunction with a digital resistance ladder type setup. Years ago I also saw and purchased a dedicated IC that was supposed to do something similar with a digital input but it never worked quite right. I wonder if I still have that chip around to tinker with a bit more, back then the output of it was logarithmic and not linear, and that made control extremely skewed. I wanted to build a proper analog joypad for it that was about the same size as my atari 7800 controller builds. The 7800 were more of a conversion tbh, I rewired the internals of Sega Master System controllers so that each button would be recognized by the 7800 independently. I love them and thanks!

Funny seeing my work in forums when I didn't post it myself If you must know, I soldered them on Just had to make sure to work quick, yet have the iron cool enough to not melt the delicate plastic. I actually built two of these, it was a lot of fun and I use them for space dungeon all the time I drew that one night after way too many glasses soda and not being able to sleep. I saw some other schematics here as well that looked pretty good The only downside to the digital method of that schematic is you cannot play games that require true analog. In a future version, if I do one, I will just make each potentiometer into a "Spinner" style control so I can play games like breakout I did try to use a digital potentiometer system that utilized a PSP style analog stick as the input, and infact had it all inside an atari 2600 case. It worked ok for what it was, I will have to see if I can find images I took of it This used a pic microcontroller that let me basically select resistances off a resistance ladder to output a pseudo analog feel. and found them! and another version using a PS2 style analog controller with a "resistance magnification" circuit to give a more analog feel. Sorry for the large pics, was just excited to see others take an interest in a love of mine ~RetroGameGirl