Pc joystick to 5200 schematic

[Swami]

4 hours ago, Danjovic said:

The board is for a custom (DIY) paddle (that should have a 100K pot instead of a 500K, sorry).

 

The standard CX-30 paddle requires a different circuit/board

 

PC+CX30to5200.sch 500.95 kB · 1 download

 

PC+CX30to5200.brd 107.9 kB · 1 download

Okay. Thanks. The only thing that I get confused about, with my own design as well, is using pin 9 (vpot) vs pin 12 (Vcc) from the 5200 port for powering things. Like on the 2600 Vpot and Vcc are the same thing. But on the 5200 pin12 (Vcc) provides more current than pin9 (Vpot), but when developing ikonsgr’s masterplay clone adapter, they said pin12 didn’t work, although it does on my 5200. Although, I think only one guy tried it once, so not sure how certain that was. And “low budget”, who built the original masterplay clone had pin9 going to power the IC chip and pin12 for both of the genesis/Atari Vcc DB9 pins 5 and 7. That one did not have a paddle port. Atariguy1021’s masterplay clone had a paddle port, but never shared its schematic and I’ve not been copacetic to opening it yet because of their rarity. 

[Danjovic]

1 hour ago, Swami said:

Okay. Thanks. The only thing that I get confused about, with my own design as well, is using pin 9 (vpot) vs pin 12 (Vcc) from the 5200 port for powering things. Like on the 2600 Vpot and Vcc are the same thing. But on the 5200 pin12 (Vcc) provides more current than pin9 (Vpot), but when developing ikonsgr’s masterplay clone adapter, they said pin12 didn’t work, although it does on my 5200. Although, I think only one guy tried it once, so not sure how certain that was. And “low budget”, who built the original masterplay clone had pin9 going to power the IC chip and pin12 for both of the genesis/Atari Vcc DB9 pins 5 and 7. That one did not have a paddle port. Atariguy1021’s masterplay clone had a paddle port, but never shared its schematic and I’ve not been copacetic to opening it yet because of their rarity. 

Hi Swami, I hope that the information below might be useful might be useful to clarify your questions:

 

• pin 12 is a permanent VCC (+5V) coming from a voltage regulator inside the 5200.
• pin 9 is an adjustable power supply (~4.2..6V) that can be turned on/off by 5200. On the 5200 schematic such voltage is named CAV. I agree that Vpot would suit better to its purpose.
• Atari 5200 measures position of the game controller by measuring the time a (internal) capacitor takes to charge from 0 (zero) Volts to a given voltage. The current that charges the capacitor flows through the potentiometer of the game controller.
• For a fixed voltage supplied to one side of the potentiometer ("hot side"), the charging time varies with the resistance value.
• For a fixed resistance of the potentiometer the charging time varies with the voltage supplied to the "hot side" of the potentiometer.
• The reason why CAV voltage was made adjustable is to provide a means of adjustig the timing when the potentiometer is set on the "center" position.
• The 5200 trackball works by varying the voltage on the hot side of a 180K resistor. When the trackball is steady the voltage is about 3.0V. When you roll the trackball to one side the voltage increases, thus charging the capacitor faster. When you roll the trackball to the opposite direction the voltage drops and the capacitor takes more time to charge. The net effect is the same of having a fixed voltage and a variable resistor.
• Some games can turn off CAV to measure the "idle" position of the trackball. When CAV drops, the circuit of the trackball ignores the pulses coming from the ball sensors and the voltage it supplies provides the reference charging time for the 5200.
• The game can differentiate a controller from a trackball by dropping CAV and measuring the time it takes for the capacitors charge. A Trackball will return some value close to the center of the scale. A standard controller will return 208 because without the CAV voltage supplied to the hot side of the potentiometer the capacitor will never charge.
• A game that do not try to detect a trackball will work with the ikonsgr's adapter connected to either pin 12 (5V) or CAV. They might provide different countings, though.
• A controller adapter can be powered by pin 12 as long as it provides a method of blocking the output whenever CAV drops to 0V.

[bohoki]

when pin 12 is used with the x,y the game switches to trackball mode you can notice it in the analog games instead of snapping back to center the cursor will stay where you leave it try experimenting i used a switch alternate between using pin 9 and pin 12 on an arcade joystick i made

[Swami]

6 hours ago, Swami said:

Okay. Thanks. The only thing that I get confused about, with my own design as well, is using pin 9 (vpot) vs pin 12 (Vcc) from the 5200 port for powering things. Like on the 2600 Vpot and Vcc are the same thing. But on the 5200 pin12 (Vcc) provides more current than pin9 (Vpot), but when developing ikonsgr’s masterplay clone adapter, they said pin12 didn’t work, although it does on my 5200. Although, I think only one guy tried it once, so not sure how certain that was. And “low budget”, who built the original masterplay clone had pin9 going to power the IC chip and pin12 for both of the genesis/Atari Vcc DB9 pins 5 and 7. That one did not have a paddle port. Atariguy1021’s masterplay clone had a paddle port, but never shared its schematic and I’ve not been copacetic to opening it yet because of their rarity. 

Is it possible for you to add the y-axis to the DB9 paddle schematic? I don't know how to do this CAD stuff. There are no games for two paddles now, unless you want to play etch-a-sketch style, but I like to believe in a future where there is Atari 5200 Warlords.?

 

3 hours ago, bohoki said:

when pin 12 is used with the x,y the game switches to trackball mode you can notice it in the analog games instead of snapping back to center the cursor will stay where you leave it try experimenting i used a switch alternate between using pin 9 and pin 12 on an arcade joystick i made

I tried it once without much luck but I will be trying again soon.

[Danjovic]

Sure, it is possible to add the Y axis, but that would require a switch with more contacts. Another option would be doubling the quantity of trim potentiometers and use the same 2PST switch.

[Danjovic]

BTW  there was a little mistake in my schematic, as the fire button of padlle 1 is present at pin 4 instead of pin 6. It was fixed in the files attached.

 

PC+CX30to5200.sch PC+CX30to5200.brd

Edited January 18, 2020 by Danjovic

[Danjovic]

1 hour ago, Danjovic said:

Sure, it is possible to add the Y axis, but that would require a switch with more contacts. Another option would be doubling the quantity of trim potentiometers and use the same 2PST switch.

[+Mitch]

On 1/16/2020 at 8:38 PM, Swami said:

 but I like to believe in a future where there is Atari 5200 Warlords.?

 

It already exists in the AtariAge store, it is just not called Warlords for copy-write purposes. 4port 5200 = 4 player Warlords, 2port 5200 = 2 player Warlords.

 

The original Atari Warlords proto is around but it is fairly early and not playable.

 

Mitch

[Swami]

49 minutes ago, Mitch said:

It already exists in the AtariAge store, it is just not called Warlords for copy-write purposes. 4port 5200 = 4 player Warlords, 2port 5200 = 2 player Warlords.

 

The original Atari Warlords proto is around but it is fairly early and not playable.

 

Mitch

Thanks. I was thinking along the lines of 2-4 paddles. Still possible I suppose, but was thinking along the lines of a non-destructive paddle method. It would just need a different adapter that went to two separate ports for each paddle of a pair.

[Swami]

1 hour ago, Danjovic said:

Cool!

[+Mitch]

48 minutes ago, Swami said:

Thanks. I was thinking along the lines of 2-4 paddles. Still possible I suppose, but was thinking along the lines of a non-destructive paddle method. It would just need a different adapter that went to two separate ports for each paddle of a pair.

Yes, that would be possible but then the game would need to be reprogrammed to take advantage of it.

 

Mitch