Famicom square button controller for NES FR

Started by dark_cerberus, April 15, 2019, 02:58:50 am

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dark_cerberus

Hey guys,

I'm new in the community I seen all the work that have been done here and it's totally amazing. ;D
Mine sound "simple" but for my level it's apparently not.

Ultimate goal is to make a player 2 from famicom fully functional on an European NES ( Mic included). BTW my player 2 controller is the original one with square bottons ( if it change something)

I read many topics online about it and so far what i see is the best option would be to use the ENIO EXP Board.


1st phase: Make the famicom player 2 controller work like a regular nes controller ( of course without the pause/start/mic) [/color]

I looked at pinout for famicom P2 and nes here is what i done to connect it.

1: ground: red
2: clock: white / 5:+5v : brown
3: latch: yellow / 6: D3: ( mic but not connected) : blue
4: data : orange / 7: D4: none


I tested it on double dragon 2 and the only thing that happen is that the P2 character is jumping when i plug the controller. If I wiggle the connector it punch and jump.
otherwise using the pad does not make my character move or anything.

So my 4 options are :
-My controller is dead ( but if there is a reaction it's unlikely)
-My connection are making some kind of short circuit ( i isolate with electrician tape each connection). also I just wrap the wire on the pine and did not solder them but it should make a connection anyway
-My pinout scheme is wrong ( most plausible option ).
- Anything specific at the famicom player 2 or the fact that it's a square version.

2nd phase: make the mic work probably with the enio exp board or even harwiering it to the board.


No thing tested so far but if someone has a solution I'm interested. Need to make my controller work first ;).

If you need pictures or anything let me know.

Thanks for you help, because it's been bugging me for a while now and i really want to tackle that damn project :D. And sorry for that long post i wanted to be super clear.

P

Controller II (minus the microphone) already works on NES. The pins are in the second NES controller port, not the expansion port (The ENIO will allow you to use controller III and IV on a NES though, and you don't need to build anything to do that). All you need is to make an adapter that connects the 5 pins. The lack of START and SELECT is a "feature" of the controller itself and it will always send their states as unpressed to the console, so it should work on a NES without problems.

The reason it partly works with Double Dragon 2 is probably because the game allows using controller III and IV as I and II respectively.

I advice you to not rely on colours of the wires as they may vary. I would always check that you have the correct wire with a multimeter. I recently posted pinout diagrams in this post. It's about connecting the Four Score, but you need the same diagram.


Getting the microphone to work is a bit harder though because the NES is missing some circuitry I heard. I don't know the details though.
Here is how the mic is connected in the Famicom and here is how it looks like in the controller.

In this thread they are trying to add it to an AV Famicom.
QuoteIronically, the front loader NES would be easier to add the microphone, it brings 4016 D2 to the expansion cart connector as well as the signal for audio input to mix the analog microphone with the built-in sound generation.


Here is someone else that connected a controller II with microphone to an AV Famicom.

dark_cerberus

Ah Thanks man, you are the first person that helped me out on that task. I'm so happy.

Yes a hear that a lot over the time for the colors on the wires. I own a multimeter but... let's say I'm not versed intro electronic.
Would you have any link or youtube video that i could refer to test those wires?

I know it's pretty bad but even at 36 you have to start somewhere and I figured this project would be perfect to get some basic skills.

Thanks for all those infos i'm really over the moon :)

P

Google for continuity test. It's just to check what wire is connected to which pin, then write down the colors and pins on paper.
If the multimeter probe is too thick to get into the pins you can use a thin metal bar (like a paperclip or something) to stick in there and probe that (crocodile clips helps with this).

dark_cerberus

Ok i need to understand something.

Doing continuity test is great to check if my wires are all right.
But how does it help to know if i wire the right pin on the right slot?

Because if i hook one wire and i do a continuity test it's just going to tell me that the wire is connectec on the console right.? :-[
Just my commun sense here.

P

Just to make it clear that you understand how continuity test works: you can only test two conductive parts if they are directly connected to each other, like ends of a wire or component pins on a circuit board. Usually the multimeter (set to continuity mode) beeps if it's possible that electricity can flow between the two probes. If there is too much resistance it might not react at all. You can not test if they are connected to the console (unless you open the console and put the other probe on the pins from the inside). Also you don't test continuity when the power is on.

Exactly how did you build this? Did you build an adapter or did you just replace the connector head on the controller? If you did the former you can just check all the pins in both ends if they are connected as the diagram (don't forget that the head pins are reverted from the diagram of the port). If you did the later you need to open the controller in order to probe the wires inside it with the pins on the connector head.

dark_cerberus

So I dit test all the wire of the controller and they all work ( continuity test).

I didn't do an adaptater so to speak.

I took an old none working NES AV controller, took the plug out of that controller ( open it ) and cut out all the pins ( at the end of the wires).
Open my Famicom Square button controller, solder the pins at the ends of each wire and put it back into the NES AV plug.

I thought that figuring out the mapping and color of the cable would allow me to use it directly. :-[

P

Strange, that should work.

Make sure that it is wired like this (but inverted, this is of port side):

NES Controller Port
              _
      GND -- |1\
      CLK <- |27\ -- +5V
      P/S <- |36| <- D3
      OUT -> |45| <- D4
              ¯¯


But since you already cut off the original head it might not be so easy to know what wire is what though. Unless the circuit board inside the controller gives some hints. Maybe you can post some photos of both sides of that board? It should be able to tell what wire is connected to what pin on the shift register chips.