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Retronic Design usb to classic 9-pin joystick adapter


cncfreak

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  • 2 years later...
  • 6 months later...

Bringing this thread back to life. Does anyone have real world experience with these adapters? They seem to be the answer to all of my Retropi needs as far as using Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari Paddles, and Atari driving controllers.

 

I'd just like to get some recent feedback on the product and the seller. Thanks

 

http://www.retronicdesign.com/en/

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Bringing this thread back to life. Does anyone have real world experience with these adapters? They seem to be the answer to all of my Retropi needs as far as using Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari Paddles, and Atari driving controllers.

 

I'd just like to get some recent feedback on the product and the seller. Thanks

 

http://www.retronicdesign.com/en/

Hello there!

 

The USB joystick adapter is now entering it's 8th year of operation. More alive than ever, it's now supporting even more type of joysticks and controllers;

  • Atari 2600 Joystick
  • Atari 7800 Joystick (2 buttons)
  • Atari analog Paddle (2 players)
  • Atari driving controller
  • Atari video touch pad Keyboard
  • Amstrad Joystick (3 buttons)
  • Amiga Joystick
  • Amiga Mouse / Trackball (2 and 3 buttons)
  • Atari ST Mouse / Trackball (2 buttons)
  • Commodore 64 Joystick
  • Commodore CD32 Joypad (7 buttons)
  • Intellivision Touch pad (16 direction disc and 15 buttons)
  • Intellivision Flashback Touch pad (16 direction disc and 15 buttons)
  • ColecoVision Touch pad and Super Action Controller (16 buttons + spinner)
  • Coleco Gemini Joystick & Paddle (Hybrid controller, also compatible with Sears console)
  • MSX Joystick (2 buttons)
  • Sega Genesis Joypad (3 and 6 buttons)
  • Sega Master System Joypad
  • Sega Multi-Tap Adapter (4 players)
  • 3DO (Panasonic) Joypad
  • TI99/4/4a Joystick
  • FM Towns/Marty Joypad
  • Famiclone (NES clone) Joypad
  • Odyssey2 controller
  • Fairchild channel F controller
  • Bally/Astrocade controller
  • RedOctane Dance pads (6 buttons DB9 version)
  • ZX Spectrum Interface 2 Joysticks

There is now a huge community that use and share its knowledge about this adapter, used on many playforms;

 

  • PC
  • Mac
  • Linux
  • Raspberry PI (retropie and others)
  • Amiga NG
  • ...

We're working on other retro products but this joystick adapter is (and will remain) our main product.

 

A GUI updater in java is actually in developpment.

 

Cheers! :waving:

Edited by Nitz1976
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Bringing this thread back to life. Does anyone have real world experience with these adapters? They seem to be the answer to all of my Retropi needs as far as using Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari Paddles, and Atari driving controllers.

 

I'd just like to get some recent feedback on the product and the seller. Thanks

 

http://www.retronicdesign.com/en/

I use it with an Intellivision controller and it works perfectly. The seller is a good guy as well, very responsive. The only thing is if you want to use different types of controllers using different firmwares, you'd have to flash the adapter each time. The best part is all the firmware source code is available so if someone wants to write some sort of multicontroller switching firmware they could.
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The only thing is if you want to use different types of controllers using different firmwares, you'd have to flash the adapter each time.

Does this mean flash it every time I want to switch back and forth, or just the first time I use it for each controller?

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Yes, indeed, firmware has to be reflashed each time for different controller.

 

All firmwares are open source. They can be modified easily.

 

I already thought about combining some easy ones that does not require detection and are not conflicting each other. But many of them does not have their power pin or ground pin at the same location. This is a real problem for multi-controller firmware.

 

Two solutions then;

- A complete flashing solution integrated in a GUI with all firmwares (like the KADE project)

- A custom software interacting with the USB adapter that change its behavior

 

I chose the fist solution, which would be more standard and compatible with many OS plus more evolutive.

 

I started the developpement of this solution at the beginning of this present year. I'm working in parallel few other projects, most for the commodore Amiga scene.

 

Anybody a crack in Java? Extra hands always appreciated ;)

Edited by Nitz1976
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I know what you mean about different ground pins. Would it be possible that at the time the adapter is plugged in a unique button or controller direction is held that would identify the controller and then the firmware program assigns the ground pin accordingly. Combining a few this way like Atari/sega joystick, coleco vision, intellivision, atari paddle would be helpfull.

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That means a complex detection scheme. This detection algorithm would need to occur only once, at the USB plug-in time. Then, to change the controller, the USB would need to be disconnected and reconnected.

 

Still there are issues;

+5v power pins. On some adapters, it's needed to discover what they are.

Without movement on some joysticks, all pins are floating. Impossible to know what they are.

Edited by Nitz1976
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  • 2 months later...

Just received 2 of these adapters via eBay and then found this thread with the discount for AA members. Oh well.

 

So I have questions about flashing. I am using a laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate and all fixes applied. Had to install 2005 Visual C++ to get past the side-by-side configuration error. Wish this were documented as a pre-req.

 

So now I can run HIDBootFlash. With the default fields, it does not find the device. If I change the ProductID to what I find via Control Panel, then the device is found. However flashing never works.

I have tried shorting the pins 6 and 8 and have also tried pressing keypad 6 on an attached Intellivision Flashback controller. When I select the firmware file and attempt to flash, it generates many many errors.

 

Interesting the when the device is detected, the last two lines say

Page Size: 0000

Device Size 000000000

 

The flashing errors begin with

 

Data 32640 bytes exceeds remaining flash size!

0x00000...0x0080

Error Flashing device!!!!

 

And these last 2 lines are repeated many times with different address ranges

And finally

 

Resetting device!

Download failed!!!!

 

The only controllers I have available to plug in are the Flashback controller or an Intellivision II controller. Can't say for sure that I got a great connection on pins 6 and 8.

 

Is there a way to determine what firmware is currently installed? I did notice that in HIDBootFlash, in the firmware select box, it detects the first firmware listed in the directory from which HIDBootFlash is executed so this is not indicative of what is installed.

 

Any help or suggestions is appreciated. My goal is to use this with RetroPie and also directly into a PC or Mac.

Edited by rockstar
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Hello there,

 

Flashing the adapter need to have something to maintain pin 6 and 8 together while plugging it into your machine. This trigger the bootflash process. The device will appear as HIDBOOT instead of the joystick adapter.

 

Doing this without an Atari joystick can be a bit tricky so try to use a little wire or paperclip.

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Hi Nitz1976, thanks for the reply.

 

I will say, once I saw that the developers of this adapter were active members on AA and I read this and other threads, it really boosted my confidence in the product. And being open source with schematics is fantastic and a great looking piece of hardware to boot.

 

Yes, I suspect maybe the pins are not being shorted correctly even with 6 pressed on the Intellivision Flashback controller. I got rid of all of my serial port headers and pins years ago, so having trouble finding pins that fit this adapter. The ones I used for car stereos are too large. And there are no real electronics stores around, not even a Rat Shack anymore. Maybe I can find an old modem cable at a thrift store and cut it off.

 

So if the pins are shorted, should I not have to change the ProductID to match what Device Manager shows ? I noticed that the two adapters have different ProductIDs.

 

And is there any way to tell which firmware is currently flashed on the adapter?

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Yes. Shorting 6&8 at startup (when the adapter is connected to USB) is triggering it into bootloader mode thus changing it's product ID.

 

Errors at the end of the programmation is normal. Bootblock section was intentionally locked to preserve the device from bricking in case of a manipulation error.

 

Cheers!

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