Wico Y Cable Issue

[Ianr757]

Hi all, I just bought a Y cable but it's giving me some issues. Once I enter the game after entering in the number of players/game mode etc, the joystick is stuck moving right and none of the fire buttons work. The controller works fine when used without the Y cable. For reference, the other controller that is plugged into the 9 pin port is a 2600 controller. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Ianr757]

In other port is an Atari 5200 controller as the keypad.

[Goochman]

If your 5200 controller is not calibrated it will move the cursor around - the Y cable doesnt turn off directional control from the 5200 stick it just passes through the Wico stick commands.

 

Just plug in the 5200 stick to make sure nothing is moving or fire buttons being activated.  If everything works fine with just the 5200 controller and it acts up with the Y cable then my guess is your Wico joystick might have a problem or the cable.

[Ianr757]

39 minutes ago, Goochman said:

If your 5200 controller is not calibrated it will move the cursor around - the Y cable doesnt turn off directional control from the 5200 stick it just passes through the Wico stick commands.

 

Just plug in the 5200 stick to make sure nothing is moving or fire buttons being activated.  If everything works fine with just the 5200 controller and it acts up with the Y cable then my guess is your Wico joystick might have a problem or the cable.

I'm actually not using the Wico controller, which I understand is probably the issue. If I get a Wico stick, can I use the OEM 5200 controller as the keypad? Would this work?

[Goochman]

Yes - the Y cable allows you to connect 2 sticks at once.  If your second stick is a 2600 controller today then that explains your issue.  The 2600 stick is not compatible with the 5200.

 

With the Y cable you will effectively have 2 active sticks in the port.  Both can provide movements hence any action you are able to do on either stick will register.  The 5200 keypad controls will work just fine.

[Ianr757]

2 hours ago, Goochman said:

Yes - the Y cable allows you to connect 2 sticks at once.  If your second stick is a 2600 controller today then that explains your issue.  The 2600 stick is not compatible with the 5200.

 

With the Y cable you will effectively have 2 active sticks in the port.  Both can provide movements hence any action you are able to do on either stick will register.  The 5200 keypad controls will work just fine.

Great, thank you very much!

[bohoki]

wico cable is only for the wico 5200 stick

 

the 15 pin atari connector has the top row being the keypad matrix the bottom row is for directions and fire buttons

 

the cable passes through the top row from the controller to the system

and the bottom row is sent to the 9 pin wired in their special configuration

 

if you have the wico y cable and do not have a wico analog 5200 stick you are not going to be able to do anything

 

you can wire a push button to pins 4 and 7 on a 15 pin female plug jack it in and not need a atari controller plugged into the y adapter most games only need you to press start

 

also the y adapter conductors can break so use an ohm meter and check each connection (remember what i said about top row and bottom row

 

 

[Swami]

3 hours ago, Ianr757 said:

Great, thank you very much!

Yeah, like bohoki said, this y-cable pretty much works only with an analog Wico controller. It does not work with the digital controllers like Atari 2600 and Genesis, even though you have a nine pin connector. Ave1 has done a couple mods to use other controllers with this y-cable, but I don't remember if the 2600/genesis controllers were involved. Seems like it was Atari paddles.

[ave1]

Yep- Atari paddles.  It's on YouTube.  Use the search terms: innovative analog controls mod Atari 5200.

Edited September 26, 2020 by ave1