Famicom 15 Pin Port Controller Question

Started by DiggerandIndy, July 07, 2011, 05:52:08 pm

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DiggerandIndy

Okay, so everyone knows about the 15 pin port on the front of the Famicom, right? I do know that special controllers go there.

My question is, has anyone tried other controllers on that port, other than the controllers designed for the Famicom? An old PC controller, or maybe a Neo Geo controller, perhaps? The D-Pads on the Famicom are getting weak and I do NOT wanna mod my system. Any (polite) answers are helpful. Thanks!

lobdale

The controllers can be easily switched out with different controllers, they are plug and play after you take the back cover off.  As far as using different controllers through the expansion port, what would probably be most difficult is merely fabricating a connector to actually fit in there, since I am pretty sure it is a non-standard configuration, with pins for both P1/P2 controllers.  I'm not aware of any "self-made" controllers to connect to the expansion port offhand... you can always just buy something like a joycard and plug it in stock.

ericj

You can use a DA-15 cable from Tototek.com and make a controller connector. I've made a few to connect a NES Four Score so you can use NES controllers.



Or, you could wire it up to NES extension cables, like these:



Seems to be a good solution since NES controllers are cheap and easy to find.

Xious

July 07, 2011, 10:53:01 pm #3 Last Edit: July 07, 2011, 11:28:43 pm by Xious
Quote from: DiggerandIndy on July 07, 2011, 05:52:08 pm
Okay, so everyone knows about the 15 pin port on the front of the Famicom, right? I do know that special controllers go there.

My question is, has anyone tried other controllers on that port, other than the controllers designed for the Famicom? An old PC controller, or maybe a Neo Geo controller, perhaps? The D-Pads on the Famicom are getting weak and I do NOT wanna mod my system. Any (polite) answers are helpful. Thanks!


Controllers for any other system will either have no function, or undesirable function if you tried to use them on a Famicom. You should look at the pin-out for the port first, as you will see that it has connections to very specific registers. The operational principal is completely different to that on other consoles.

Quote from: lobdale on July 07, 2011, 06:00:29 pm
The controllers can be easily switched out with different controllers, they are plug and play after you take the back cover off.  As far as using different controllers through the expansion port, what would probably be most difficult is merely fabricating a connector to actually fit in there, since I am pretty sure it is a non-standard configuration, with pins for both P1/P2 controllers.  I'm not aware of any "self-made" controllers to connect to the expansion port offhand... you can always just buy something like a joycard and plug it in stock.


You can convert any digital controller if you (properly) wire it via a 4021B static shift register (which converts the parallel signals into fewer, serial signal), and the correct pull-up resistors. The cable used on a Famicom is a DA-15F type, with an extra-long extension from the hood. The ToToTek cables are what I use for custom jobs, and there is no other solution on the market: No-one else manufactures a connector appropriate anymore and standard DA-15 female connectors will not work, though Male DA-15 connectors can be used to build adapters to wire FC devices to another system (e.g. NES).

(I always keep both types in stock as I use them to build things.)

The Famicom's DA-15 port supports additional signals not found on many input devices; you could experiment on ways to use these features, but you'd have to write a game to make use of them. It also supports input from multiple controllers a simultaneously and it is possible to build game-specific controllers to make use go its signals.

You could make an actual, custom 'Gyromite' controller that is wired to be used on this port, for instance, using one NES controller (and no hack-saw and sticky-tape are needed). If you wanted, you could wire a FDS controller to provide additional button functions to a new game that needed them: it is possible to use all of the FDS buttons on the Famicom on one game in this instance, but no game made to-date does this, save perhaps some of the 'Family Trainer' series.

The signals on the DA-15 port, for the most part, are also on the NES, accessible via the EXP connector. The reverse however, is un-true, though there are only a couple signals not present on the FC, aside from the 10-line EXP paths (between the port and the game cartridge connector). Again, as no actual software makes use of these signal paths, they're not very relevant to anything you'd likely want to do.

In short, unless you fancy re-wiring the, to do so, non-Famicom controllers will not work on a Famicom. You might force game glitches or crashes though by connecting them up directly. I know that improperly wiring a controller via a 4021B can do this, in any case.  :bomb: