5200 Y cable

[DragonmasterDan]

Does anyone know a good place to find a 5200 Y cable for a Wico? I found a Wico Command Controller 5200 inexpensively today, unfortunately it didn't have the Y cable. Any ideas?

[atariksi]

Does anyone know a good place to find a 5200 Y cable for a Wico? I found a Wico Command Controller 5200 inexpensively today, unfortunately it didn't have the Y cable. Any ideas?

 

One idea is to find a Wico Keypad so you don't need the Y cable.

 

Another idea is to build your own-- I haven't tried this but perhaps you can use one of these DB9 connectors and wire your own DB9 connector for Wico Joystick:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320460200967

 

Currently, it's used for Atari 2600 Paddles and other things.

 

A third idea would be to sell it on Ebay.

[BigO]

It really shouldn't be too complex to build your own. It should be do-able with all readily available parts. Soldering skills would be most helpful.

 

To address what you really asked, no. But if it's worth enough money to someone, I'd build one. I've got a 5200 Command controller that I picked up for a couple of dollars at Goodwill recently that I haven't tested. I should build myself a cable, but I don't pay very well.

[DragonmasterDan]

It really shouldn't be too complex to build your own. It should be do-able with all readily available parts. Soldering skills would be most helpful.

 

To address what you really asked, no. But if it's worth enough money to someone, I'd build one. I've got a 5200 Command controller that I picked up for a couple of dollars at Goodwill recently that I haven't tested. I should build myself a cable, but I don't pay very well.

 

Are those connectors fairly standard. I'm lousy at sodering (I've had several failed console repairs attempts).

[BigO]

Standard 9 pin male should plug into the Wico cable, the 5200 controller will plug into the cable from an old 15 pin PC joystick cable (if I'm remembering all of the controller genders correctly). The trickiest part would be the female connector that hooks to the console. A standard one with the mounting flange may not plug in deep enough into the console to be reliable, though I have done that while developing a custom controller.

 

I'd need to sit down and derive a schematic from the pinouts of all the pieces, but I imagine that Y-cable schematic is available on the internet.

 

For a more advanced project, I'd skip the 5200 controller all together and buy a 3x4 matrix keypad, 3 pushbuttons and a project case (or 15 pushbuttons). Can that work for sure? Absolutely. I did that in my own scratch built controller.

[DragonmasterDan]

Standard 9 pin male should plug into the Wico cable, the 5200 controller will plug into the cable from an old 15 pin PC joystick cable (if I'm remembering all of the controller genders correctly). The trickiest part would be the female connector that hooks to the console. A standard one with the mounting flange may not plug in deep enough into the console to be reliable, though I have done that while developing a custom controller.

 

I'd need to sit down and derive a schematic from the pinouts of all the pieces, but I imagine that Y-cable schematic is available on the internet.

 

For a more advanced project, I'd skip the 5200 controller all together and buy a 3x4 matrix keypad, 3 pushbuttons and a project case (or 15 pushbuttons). Can that work for sure? Absolutely. I did that in my own scratch built controller.

 

See, I'm lousy at these sorts of things. So the cable alone would be a challenge and an achievement if I were able to assemble a working one.

[bohoki]

its easy to make one but not easy to make it look good

 

since you have to cut off the metal shielding from the "standard" 15 pin male and female

 

i use the soldering iron to melt the 2 plastic pieces of the plugs together

 

i would make the y cable and a keypad/3 button project and have it plug into the 15 pin

 

so lets get together a parts list

 

you will need 2 lengths of 8 conductor wire(network cable works fine

 

you will need

1 male 15 pin d

1 female 15 pin d

1 male 9 pin d

 

 

first lets do the 9 pin to the 15 pin female

 

9 pin ------------------15 pin

 

3 button ground----------15

4 1----------------------14

5 2---------------------13

6 v---------------------11

7 pc--------------------9

8 h--------------------10

 

 

the 15 pin male goes wire for wire with the top row

but in case you forget

 

 

1-------------1 Rcolmn

2-------------2 Mcolmn

3-------------3 Lcolmn

4-------------4 colmn s,p,r

5-------------5 row3

6-------------6 row2

7-------------7 row1

8-------------8 row4

 

if you are money bags mcgee this is a superb identical in function to the one used on the illusive starcon controller

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200186959864&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-3-12-Key-Membrane-Matrix-Switch-Keypad-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ300371625257QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef8b4529

 

which is adequate

[DragonmasterDan]

its easy to make one but not easy to make it look good

 

since you have to cut off the metal shielding from the "standard" 15 pin male and female

 

i use the soldering iron to melt the 2 plastic pieces of the plugs together

 

i would make the y cable and a keypad/3 button project and have it plug into the 15 pin

 

so lets get together a parts list

 

you will need 2 lengths of 8 conductor wire(network cable works fine

 

you will need

1 male 15 pin d

1 female 15 pin d

1 male 9 pin d

 

 

first lets do the 9 pin to the 15 pin female

 

9 pin ------------------15 pin

 

3 button ground----------15

4 1----------------------14

5 2---------------------13

6 v---------------------11

7 pc--------------------9

8 h--------------------10

 

 

the 15 pin male goes wire for wire with the top row

but in case you forget

 

 

1-------------1 Rcolmn

2-------------2 Mcolmn

3-------------3 Lcolmn

4-------------4 colmn s,p,r

5-------------5 row3

6-------------6 row2

7-------------7 row1

8-------------8 row4

 

if you are money bags mcgee this is a superb identical in function to the one used on the illusive starcon controller

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200186959864&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-3-12-Key-Membrane-Matrix-Switch-Keypad-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ300371625257QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef8b4529

 

which is adequate

 

Are those connectors fairly easy to find? Is that something I can find at a radio shack?

[atariksi]

its easy to make one but not easy to make it look good

 

since you have to cut off the metal shielding from the "standard" 15 pin male and female

 

i use the soldering iron to melt the 2 plastic pieces of the plugs together

 

i would make the y cable and a keypad/3 button project and have it plug into the 15 pin

 

so lets get together a parts list

 

you will need 2 lengths of 8 conductor wire(network cable works fine

 

you will need

1 male 15 pin d

1 female 15 pin d

1 male 9 pin d

 

 

first lets do the 9 pin to the 15 pin female

 

9 pin ------------------15 pin

 

3 button ground----------15

4 1----------------------14

5 2---------------------13

6 v---------------------11

7 pc--------------------9

8 h--------------------10

 

 

the 15 pin male goes wire for wire with the top row

but in case you forget

 

 

1-------------1 Rcolmn

2-------------2 Mcolmn

3-------------3 Lcolmn

4-------------4 colmn s,p,r

5-------------5 row3

6-------------6 row2

7-------------7 row1

8-------------8 row4

 

if you are money bags mcgee this is a superb identical in function to the one used on the illusive starcon controller

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200186959864&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-3-12-Key-Membrane-Matrix-Switch-Keypad-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ300371625257QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef8b4529

 

which is adequate

 

Are those connectors fairly easy to find? Is that something I can find at a radio shack?

 

Well, that link I gave for the double DB9 to DB15 adapter will let you do the keypad part directly without any wiring since it uses the A2600 keyboard controller or touchpad replacing 2,5,8 with start,pause,reset. You just have to do the wiring for the Wico stick part.

 

The link referred to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320460200967

[javierbonilla78]

I found a Y cable, at first glance I believed it was for the Atari 5200 but here's the thing the cable has 2 female ports and one male.

 

Any ideas?

[ave1]

Back in the 90's before USB ports were a thing there was a port on the PC called a PC gameport. A single gameport controller could be plugged into this port or you could plug two in at the same time using one of these Y adapters. It is not for the 5200.

[7800fan]

^^ this. Standard gameport had 2 sets of analog and 4 button inputs. Standard PC controller were one set of analog lines and 2 buttons so a Y adapter was needed for 2 players game or skip Y adapter for one player only game. Later PC controller took advantage of often unused second player port to have 4 button controller, or even more using player 2 analog lines.

 

USB made this obsolete. One player per port, add in USB hubs for more players. One PC could have around 200 USB controllers at once.

 

The Y adapter won't work with 5200 and it is likely not fully wired on all pins so it's probably no good for future hack or mod. If you don't want it, offer it for free on FS section (person pays shipping), someone might want one for old school setup.