Wico Keypad Cable and Pinout Problem

[jatari87]

Hello all - Since jumping into this thing and doing little projects here and there, I have suffered some setbacks, and enjoyed a few surprising successes. But, this latest project I've embarked upon has given me quite a few ups and downs, with an emphasis on the down. I have a Wico Keypad that was only registering a few buttons. I swapped a cable and confirmed it's the cable. Despite urgings from the intelligence center of my brain, I had to jump into getting to the bottom of it and solving my problem {without consulting the pros here first, of course}. How hard could it be to get some new wires from keypad box to the tip of a new donor cable? Well, long story short, I failed. I've attached a photo. My question is: Does anyone have a simple explanation of where each of the 15 colored wires in that line within the keypad need to be when they reach the DB15 tip of the new cable? I'll gladly expand if anyone can join me in solving this dilemma {and even hope to be gratefully embarrassed if/when someone shows me one of those simple pinout diagrams like for converting O2 sticks to Atari, etc.} But, so far I'm not seeing it. NOW, I have seen that page that someone explains the matrix array set-up of these controllers, and with that and following the lines on the boards, and some great mental strain etc. I could see solving this puzzle some day.... AND, as you may be able to see from the picture, I've got all the wires tipped with male prongs, and a female to female gender changer adapter on it's way. It sure would be nice {and I would be more than quite grateful} if, when that gender changer adapter arrives, I could just plug those male prongs 1,2,3....15 right into their respective spots at the DB15 tip and begin to feel I've brought something good back into the world again. Thanks for reading, helping, etc. A final note {since you've stayed on this far}: Wico, in a cruel twist {and causing all my pain here} embedded their wires in some blackened amber encasement at the tip of the cable, making tracking the wires nearly impossible {I was able to track like 3 of them after a "careful" destruction of the tip}. Also, the damage was done, but it didn't help that they included 2 orange/white wires into the mix. Thanks again.

[BigO]

If I understand the need correctly, this schematic of the 5200 controller could be used to eventually answer the question, though it sounds like you really don't want to go down that path. http://atariage.com/5200/archives/schematics/Schematic_5200_Accessories_Low.html

 

Tracing everything out is not as daunting a task as it may seem. A multimeter (continuity tester or resistance function) would be extremely helpful in such a mapping expedition through the blackness to trace each wire back to it's origin/function. Relying on the color scheme in another unit may not be fruitful as the wire colors used in production may not have remained consistent over time.

[bohoki]

i would like to help but i do not have one of those items

 

the daunting task of figuring out where all 15 wires go can be overwealming and i worry you may have cut off an avenue of relief

 

first off find out which wires go to the bottom row these are the ones that will be going to the 9 pin for the joystick once you get those 6 wires out of the way it gets a bit less complicated(it might be 7)

 

 

what i would have done is cut and stripped the plug going to the 5200 and toned out every pin and wire i could and through process of elimination figured out the non conducting ones

 

the matrix is a confuser as well with the rows and columns especially how atari misleads you with the start pause reset looking like a row but it is wired like a 4th column

[jatari87]

Thanks all. Gratefully embarrassed I am. Thankfully, I had the sense to trash only a cable that was already in really bad shape, and I do have a back-up {mostly in good order}. Looks like it is time to get a Multimeter. Maybe if I get impatient while I wait I'll run the continuity testing on the spare cable with a battery harness and wires from a dismantled Digital derby and a light assembly from a Digital Diamond {I try not to keep that as a permanent solution to problems such as this though}. Thanks a ton for the help and jumpstarting my brain.

[robbievgb]

Does this help?

 

My Wico keypad was poorly patched by the previous owner (see pic) and was barely functioning. I ended up getting the third party replacement cable from best electronics and attaching the original harness to that. I think I also have the conversion (from Wico to third party cable) written down somewhere.

 

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[BigO]

Looks like it is time to get a Multimeter. Maybe if I get impatient while I wait I'll run the continuity testing on the spare cable with a battery harness and wires from a dismantled Digital derby and a light assembly from a Digital Diamond {I try not to keep that as a permanent solution to problems such as this though}.

That'll do the job.

 

But, a beeping continuity test is extremely convenient and helpful for tedious jobs like this. The Harbor Freight sub-six-dollar multimeter does the job just fine for work at this level of precision, so don't think you have to spend a lot on a meter.

 

Good luck with your project.

[jatari87]

Thanks even more! Robbievgb, those photos help greatly. I'm also interestingly surprised. My little, rushed hatchet job was a lot closer than I thought {I only had "Blue" and "Red/White" mixed up}. My attempts at any confirmation though were foiled from the beginning because I was using a switchbox with all F outputs to provide my F/F gender changing contact point in the set-up I quickly cobbled together {and it was messing up anything I plugged through it-or the outputs were just too shallow for the 5200 cables I was using, etc.}. So, unless I find some time and another way to test, I may just have to wait for that gender changer mini adapter I ordered to arrive in the mail to get my first physical taste of success here. Feeling good here though. THANKS AGAIN ALL!!!

[bohoki]

when you get a replacement cable (aka harness) you will find that pin 12 is not wired but wico wired it to a pin on the 9 pin plug to use their trackball but they never released it for the 5200 so it went unused

[bohoki]

when you get a replacement cable (aka harness) you will find that pin 12 is not wired but wico wired it to a pin on the 9 pin plug to use their trackball but they never released it for the 5200 so it went unused