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A new low-priced "Masterplay Clone" for Sega & A2600 joystick compatibility


ave1

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I fit the ikonsgr adapter into a slightly larger enclosure than my first go around with the square one. This one in the link below is a great fit once you drill out the holes. I taped some images of the connectors on the sides to get the pattern. The button is from an N64 controller. I put a screw in the bottom of it to set the depth so it contact the button on the board.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-pcs-USA-black-Plastic-Electronic-Project-Box-Enclosure-case-3-x-2-5-x-1-in/141630591923?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
 

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On 7/8/2020 at 4:01 AM, ikonsgr said:

Hmm, this might be a good idea indeed, i might also add this line to a next revision of board.

Fortunately both pin12 on 15pin a5200 connector and pin5 on the 9pin connector are not used at all, so anyone can easily solder a small wire from one pad to another on existed  boards and give it a try!

My only concern is that 5v supply was only assigned on pin5 on sega controllers ( http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/DB9-Joystick ), all other types (including the standard atari 2600 original db9 pinout) use this pin as 3rd button (or either potx/poty), so it might be potentailly dangerous to supply 5v to this pin, as it will cause a short circuit, if you try to press 3rd button, on any joystick  that supports it. On the other hand, i'm not aware of any DB9 controller that supported 3 separate fire buttons, even joysticks with 2 separate fire buttons are rather few ,compared to the enormous amount of joysticks that supported only 1 fire (most joysticks have 2 physical fire buttons, but both of these buttons were directed to the same 1st fire pin,so in reallity these joysticks supported 1 fire button, which actually was the "indusrty standard" derived from the original Atari2600 controller, 2nd and 3rd fire buttons were "undocumented", so companies place them in different pins...)

Well, I went ahead and soldered a jumper wire onto my 9 pin to 5200 Ikonsgr adapter, and the 8bitdo Retro Receiver for Sega Genesis now is functioning. It lights up properly with the bright blue light and I connected a Nintendo Switch Joycon wirelessly to play Hero successfully with it. Below is a snapshot of the connected Retro Receiver in the adapter.

 

I also plugged in a Genesis controller and it's working just as it had been before- two button function is good.  My  Master System controller also works fine.

 

The jumper wire was put on pin 5 of the 9 pin side and pin 12 of the 15 pin side.  I'm really happy about this :)

20200916_234145.jpg

20200916_235055.jpg

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On 9/16/2020 at 10:55 PM, ave1 said:

Well, I went ahead and soldered a jumper wire onto my 9 pin to 5200 Ikonsgr adapter, and the 8bitdo Retro Receiver for Sega Genesis now is functioning. It lights up properly with the bright blue light and I connected a Nintendo Switch Joycon wirelessly to play Hero successfully with it. Below is a snapshot of the connected Retro Receiver in the adapter.

 

I also plugged in a Genesis controller and it's working just as it had been before- two button function is good.  My  Master System controller also works fine.

 

The jumper wire was put on pin 5 of the 9 pin side and pin 12 of the 15 pin side.  I'm really happy about this :)

20200916_234145.jpg

20200916_235055.jpg

Cool. I hate soldering, but may have to try a couple of these out.

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Whether or not there's a plastic box, I think a revision would be good.   It makes it extra cool to have access to the bluetooth controllers via the connected 8bitdo Retro Receiver. 

 

I did another mod that is shown in this 2600 forum topic:

Even with that wire added into the 8bitdo Retro Receiver, the 5200 compatibility is not impacted when it is connected to the newly modified Ikonsgr 9 pin to 5200 controller adapter.  More great news!  :)

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4 minutes ago, ave1 said:

Whether or not there's a plastic box, I think a revision would be good.   It makes it extra cool to have access to the bluetooth controllers via the connected 8bitdo Retro Receiver. 

 

I did another mod that is shown in this 2600 forum topic:

Even with that wire added into the 8bitdo Retro Receiver, the 5200 compatibility is not impacted when it is connected to the newly modified Ikonsgr 9 pin to 5200 controller adapter.  More great news!  :)

Will this short circuit if someone presses the third unused button on genesis controllers?

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1 hour ago, Swami said:

Will this short circuit if someone presses the third unused button on genesis controllers?

The wire in question connects the "select" line with +5v, and none of the buttons are following unusual circuit paths. This mod is equivalent to what happens in a regular genesis pad plugged into a 2600, and people have been using them for decades.

 

As to whether it creates a short circuit... no more than a cx-40. Connecting the various input lines to ground is what these devices do.

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27 minutes ago, RevEng said:

The wire in question connects the "select" line with +5v, and none of the buttons are following unusual circuit paths. This mod is equivalent to what happens in a regular genesis pad plugged into a 2600, and people have been using them for decades.

 

As to whether it creates a short circuit... no more than a cx-40. Connecting the various input lines to ground is what these devices do.

It is different, though, because in the above two instances you aren't shorting a 100mA 5V line to ground. Maybe the 5V 100mA on pin 5 to ground pin short is not occurring with this setup, but I wasn't sure if there was a way to accidentally trigger it as ikonsgr mentioned a couple pages back.

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9 hours ago, RevEng said:

Yeah, neither is the direct +5v shorting to ground here. It's no different than a standard Genesis pad that connects these same 2 pins via back-powering, but I'm not guaranteeing it for any particular application. E.g. even a stock Genesis pad can fry a c64.

Atari solid state electronics were designed to withstand a some abuse. My Wired-Up Retro experiments have never blown up anything over the past 5 years. . . But I'm purposefully avoiding messing with the C64.

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I don't disagree. I've never heard of a genesis control messing up an Atari system before, either.

 

The extra buttons that are being worried about use the exact same lines as the buttons that work, with the select line being used to swap between them.

 

I can't imagine that deselected button sets would connected to +5v and some other pins, but I offer no guarantees, warranty, or promises. I didn't design the controller being plugged in. If anybody requires certainty beyond other people having not run into issues, they can break out the multimeter, or only hook up first party devices to their console.

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15 hours ago, ave1 said:

Not sure... I have my doubts it'd work.

I was just thinking maybe that is because the genesis is wired differently than the 7800.  The power is wired differently in a genesis so the 8bitdo adapter does not need the jumper wires.  And the 8bitdo does not draw power from the 7800 hence the wires.  So any bluetooth device would need jumper wires and not work.

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3 hours ago, 0078265317 said:

I was just thinking maybe that is because the genesis is wired differently than the 7800.  The power is wired differently in a genesis so the 8bitdo adapter does not need the jumper wires.  And the 8bitdo does not draw power from the 7800 hence the wires.  So any bluetooth device would need jumper wires and not work.

Sounds right.

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14 minutes ago, ikonsgr said:

Ok, so if get it right, what you are saying is that, there is no "Fear" or problem by feeding pin5 of DB9 connector with 5volts permanently? So,i will just add this line (without any jumper or switch) in the pcb, next time i order a batch?

Low Budget's Masterplay clone just had pins 5 and 7 tied together on the Amiga/Genesis 9 pin side. Also, as you can see, he did use 5200 pin 12 for powering to Amiga/Genesis pin 5 and 7 and 5200 pin 9 was used for Atari 2600 paddle pot.

A newly discovered method for playing games on the 5200 with a mouse -  Atari 5200 - AtariAge Forums

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I'd say go ahead and put in the order for the next batch with the revision.  If you feel the need, you can state in its description that - when it comes to the Genesis controller- you do not recommend using anything other than 1st party Sega Genesis controllers.  But I really don't think that's necessary.

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2 hours ago, ave1 said:

I'd say go ahead and put in the order for the next batch with the revision.  If you feel the need, you can state in its description that - when it comes to the Genesis controller- you do not recommend using anything other than 1st party Sega Genesis controllers.  But I really don't think that's necessary.

So you are saying 3rd party does not work and will fry the adapter?

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