Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.


« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports (Read 8815 times)

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« on: 2016.March.04. 14:30:06 »
I know, I know, there isn't still  a game that takes advantage of the three possible fire buttons per joystick that an EnterMice can provide.

But somebody must start walking, and the first thing is to have a three buttons joystick that can be connected to it.

The principal problem when trying to implement three buttons on a standard joystick (Kempston, Amiga, Atari) is that the cable and connector don't have the nine pins populated. Normally the fifth pin or more are hollow, without the little round female connector inside the hole.

So if someone wants to fully adapt a Joystick to the ports of the EnterMice he has to change the cable and connector that come with the joystick with a nine lead cable and a big and ugly D-sub 9 pin connector with two long bolts at the sides. You can remove the two bolts, but the connector will remain ugly and large compared with the original.

A solution can be to buy a joystick extension lead cable like this, cut the male side(the pins are male) and weld it to the joystick. This have its cost...

There are joysticks with more than two buttons, some of them repeated, for left handled users, that can be adapted to three buttons by this method.
« Last Edit: 2016.March.04. 14:34:10 by gflorez »
Logged

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #1 on: 2016.March.04. 15:25:39 »
In my case, I don't have an auto-fire joystick, so I've been searching on Ebay for one that suits me.

I've found the Quickshot Maverick 1, that has some good features:



It has an arcade shape stick, auto-fire, and two leads and connectors for two player alternate games using just a switch. But the best is that it is multi-system, it has a switch to adapt it to Atari, MSX, Amstrad and Sega Mk 1.

I don't care the other computers, I only want to connect it to an Enterprise, but due to its connection possibilities the two cables and connectors have all the pins populated....

On the other side, it comes with only two buttons, but has space to adapt a third.

Other things that I don't like are its weak plastic feeling and the lack of micro-switches. But those are aspects that I can improve myself...
Logged

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #2 on: 2016.March.04. 16:53:08 »
Looking inside,  its plastic cheap mechanics can be  seen , gummy buttons like on TV-remotes, prone to wear and malfunction on heavy use.

But I'm more interested on the 18 leads that are welded to the plate, redirected them to the large commutator and then to the direction buttons and the auto-fire circuit.

I have a micro-switched metal stick  that I plan to fit inside instead of the plastic one. I will leave the two gummy buttons for second and third ones, and a micro-switched one for the main button. The second picture is the donor, a X-Box Gamester Joystick rescued from the junk.
« Last Edit: 2016.March.04. 17:01:17 by gflorez »
Logged

Offline Z80System

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3848
  • Country: hu
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #3 on: 2016.March.04. 18:01:14 »
Quote
I have a micro-switched metal stick  that I plan to fit inside instead of the plastic one.

Wow, I will be curious about that operation ... :)
Logged
Z80 System

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #4 on: 2016.March.04. 22:02:11 »
It has been easy, the Maverick has a red ring around the stick zone that can be extracted. It is there where I have made four holes to fix the micro-switches mechanism.


I still have to cut down the heads of the screws so the ring fits better in its groove.
Logged

Offline Z80System

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3848
  • Country: hu
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #5 on: 2016.March.04. 22:08:29 »
Quote
It is there where I have made four holes

But how did you know, the green joystick will fit to the place of the other in either size,
and the screws will be on the circle of the appropriate size where you can make holes to ?

Is it a coincidence only ?
Logged
Z80 System

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #6 on: 2016.March.04. 22:41:28 »
It is not a coincidence, I selected the Maverick from Ebay because it looked me bigger enough to accommodate the switched joystick.

On the other side, the way of fitting it has occurred on the progress of doing it...  the original holes on the mechanism are nearer than needed, so I have made others where I could.... It has ended strong and stylish... much better green than the original red one.
Logged

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #7 on: 2016.March.05. 00:20:40 »
This is the final aspect with the button.


There is still plastic dust from making the hole....
« Last Edit: 2016.March.05. 00:25:13 by gflorez »
Logged

Offline Z80System

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3848
  • Country: hu
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #8 on: 2016.March.05. 00:33:52 »
Not bad !

Probably better than my ones regarding of functionality ...

But it needs a "worn style" EP configuration ... it does not go to a "shiny new" config ...
Logged
Z80 System

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #9 on: 2016.March.05. 00:51:56 »
It is only a bit used I think, nearly new. Now it has the colours of Enterprise.
Logged

Offline Z80System

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3848
  • Country: hu
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #10 on: 2016.March.05. 00:56:37 »
Yes, you are right in the meaning of colour matching ... the gray at least ... that's cool ...
Logged
Z80 System

Offline gflorez

  • EP addict
  • *
  • Posts: 3614
  • Country: es
    • Támogató Támogató
Re: Adapting a standard joystick to the EnterMice Ports
« Reply #11 on: 2016.March.05. 20:59:05 »
Once done the "artistic" side of the adaptation, we need to arrange the conexions inside the joystick.

On the Maverick 1 the most important thing that must be done is to block the system selector on the Atari position.

I don't see the point on placing this system selector just on the face of the joystick. It can be harmful to the joystick or the computer if this selector is moved while working... They should have put it at the base.

So I cancelled the selector, but I have left it there, as it is nicer than its hole...

Then I welded the micro-switched stick to the plate on the same points that the original plastic stick was.

Finally the two original buttons must be shifted from buttons 1 and 2, to 2 and 3.  Remember, button 3 has been put on the unused pin 5(on the Atari pinout) on the EnterMice joystick connectors. Once we have the first button free, we can weld the micro-switched button to the plate with two leads.

In this case, the auto-fire is done with the ground signal. On its selector we have two positions, normal(common ground) or auto-fire(pulsating ground). This ensures that we have the "machine gun " effect on every pressed button when activated.
« Last Edit: 2016.March.05. 21:03:05 by gflorez »
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »

SMF 2.0.19 | SMF © 2021, Simple Machines XHTMLRSS
Discord Linode Follow ep4ever_news on Twitter