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Atari 5200 homebrew joystick?


eebuckeye

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Something I always thought was an issue with making a digital version of the 5200 joystick. Its easy enough to have the proper ohm value occur when the joystick is up/down/left/right or at an angle of some sort. You just put the appropriate resistor inline with the up/down/left/right signal feed. The kicker to me is that how do you show 250 ohms or whatever the proper amount would be if the digital joystick is centered. Generally, centered digital joysticks have a zero/null value since they aren't connecting a circuit but an analog joystick would be feeding a resistance roughly half of the full ohm value of the variable rheostat.

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yea the powepad pro is decent

 

you can mod a 2600 joystick with just a few resistors after you cut a few traces to make the direction switches independant

 

the secret is how the analog control really works imagine the electricity like a hose and the 5200 is like one of those clowns filling a balloon

 

the middle are like a trickle and far left and up is full blast balloon about to pop mode so you think how can i use a button make it an even less trickle when buttons just make shorts

 

well imagine you were to stab a hole in the hose and let it blast off in some other direction than the clown so now your righty and downy buttons must divert the hoseblast thankfully the buttons use a gound to yay we got a path to ground

 

so you can even use your atari 2600 wire that had 6 wires u,d,l,r,button,common to make a 2 button 5200 joy that has x,y,common,button1,button2,ground

 

altoid_zps9e4799e5.jpg

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But how do you let the joystick know that it is centered? Remember, when a 2600 joystick is centered, there is no connection for any of the signals. So in a sense, the center would have a resistance similar to the low resistance for either left or right or up or down. That is the part that I can't figure out. You gotta somehow let the 5200 know that the joystick is centered by having a resistance value halfway between left and right or up and down. But how do you hook it up?

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But how do you let the joystick know that it is centered?

 

In the case of the Competition Pro (which my arcade stick is based on), the original 5200 stick acts as the centers. The pots are used in conjunction with the arcade joystick. Center the 5200 stick and the arcade stick is centered. If the 5200 stick is off center, the arcade stick will act as if it is too.

 

To my understanding, the pots range from 0-500... 250 being center. The Competition Pro is wired to allow a constant one-way connection for the analog signal. Move the arcade joystick in one direction, and the stick hits 500, move it to the other direction and it goes to 0. The stick at rest is at 250... center (provided the 5200 stick is centered).

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In the case of the Competition Pro (which my arcade stick is based on), the original 5200 stick acts as the centers. The pots are used in conjunction with the arcade joystick. Center the 5200 stick and the arcade stick is centered. If the 5200 stick is off center, the arcade stick will act as if it is too.

 

To my understanding, the pots range from 0-500... 250 being center. The Competition Pro is wired to allow a constant one-way connection for the analog signal. Move the arcade joystick in one direction, and the stick hits 500, move it to the other direction and it goes to 0. The stick at rest is at 250... center (provided the 5200 stick is centered).

Can you explain this in a little bit more detail? I still would enjoy making an arcade stick for the 5200 but I never could get past the hurdle of how to get 250 when the stick is at rest.

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Can you explain this in a little bit more detail? I still would enjoy making an arcade stick for the 5200 but I never could get past the hurdle of how to get 250 when the stick is at rest.

 

My 5200 controller works like:

 

NO = normally open microswitch

NC = normally closed

 

Research resistors in parallel

post-27883-0-10092200-1409999969_thumb.jpg

Edited by grips03
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  • 4 years later...

I made a joystick based off the Competition Pro. You plug the original 5200 controller into it for use of the keypad and special buttons. The digital joystick works quite well in every game except for ones like Breakout or Missile Command which require analog control.

 

Hello Nox, I got a 2 part question.

 

Do you have a reproducible design where you can hook up to any existing "one-function-to-one-wire joystick" and hook it up like an external PCB? Can you make those if proerply mtviated with money? If so how much?

 

I understand you can't whip it out. How much time will it take?

 

 

Extra stuff mainly for Nox, hit Show Spoiler to see.

 

 

Have you thought of offering the technology on request for those who want a good digital 5200 stick?

 

I know this is wishful thinking, but how about a third button for about 2 games which use a 0 for other stuff, like Defender, and RealSports Tennis?

 

Finally, why a left handed stick? Most sticks before the NES were right handed. Luckily that exact model can be reversed and be an ambidextrous joystick. You plug it in the back side of whatever way you want.

 

Edited by tripletopper
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