1 .. include:: <isonum.txt> 2 3 .. _joystick-parport: 4 5 ============================== 6 Parallel Port Joystick Drivers 7 ============================== 8 9 :Copyright: |copy| 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz> 10 :Copyright: |copy| 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de> 11 12 13 Sponsored by SuSE 14 15 Disclaimer 16 ========== 17 18 Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that 19 it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can 20 happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick 21 and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem. 22 23 Introduction 24 ============ 25 26 The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not 27 originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of 28 that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel 29 port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing 30 both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for 31 connecting such devices. 32 33 Devices supported 34 ================= 35 36 Many console and 8-bit computer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The 37 following subsections discuss usage of each. 38 39 NES and SNES 40 ------------ 41 42 The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System 43 gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to 44 connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and 45 165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate 46 with them. 47 48 All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from 49 the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES 50 and/or SNES gamepads and/or SNES mice connected to the parallel port at once, 51 the output lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available 52 input lines is assigned to each gamepad. 53 54 This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one 55 you'll use for NES, SNES gamepads and SNES mice. 56 57 The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power 58 source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power 59 for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through 60 cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red 61 wire is +5V). 62 63 If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from 64 some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is 65 needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other 66 hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the 67 port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work:: 68 69 (pin 9) -----> Power 70 71 Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel 72 ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your 73 case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel 74 port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together:: 75 76 Diodes 77 (pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power 78 | 79 (pin 8) ----|>|-------+ 80 | 81 (pin 7) ----|>|-------+ 82 | 83 <and so on> : 84 | 85 (pin 4) ----|>|-------+ 86 87 Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the 88 pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground:: 89 90 (pin 18) -----> Ground 91 92 NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the 93 serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port, 94 respectively:: 95 96 (pin 2) -----> Clock 97 (pin 3) -----> Latch 98 99 And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and 100 each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are:: 101 102 (pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data 103 (pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data 104 (pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data 105 (pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data 106 (pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data 107 108 Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel 109 port. 110 111 This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to 112 the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there 113 are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary 114 connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon 115 connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo 116 A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is 117 either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads 118 also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course:: 119 120 Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads and mice 121 122 +----> Power +-----------------------\ 123 | 7 | o o o o | x x o | 1 124 5 +---------+ 7 +-----------------------/ 125 | x x o \ | | | | | 126 | o o o o | | | | | +-> Ground 127 4 +------------+ 1 | | | +------------> Data 128 | | | | | | +---------------> Latch 129 | | | +-> Ground | +------------------> Clock 130 | | +----> Clock +---------------------> Power 131 | +-------> Latch 132 +----------> Data 133 134 Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads 135 136 +---------> Clock +-----------------> Data 137 | +-------> Latch | +---> Ground 138 | | +-----> Data | | 139 | | | ___________________ 140 _____________ 8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1 141 5 \ x o o o x / 1 \ o x x o x x o / 142 \ x o x o / 15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9 143 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 | | | 144 | | | | +----> Clock 145 | +----> Power | +----------> Latch 146 +--------> Ground +----------------> Power 147 148 Multisystem joysticks 149 --------------------- 150 151 In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard 152 for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin 153 connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without 154 hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64, 155 Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these 156 joysticks are called "Multisystem". 157 158 Now their pinout:: 159 160 +---------> Right 161 | +-------> Left 162 | | +-----> Down 163 | | | +---> Up 164 | | | | 165 _____________ 166 5 \ x o o o o / 1 167 \ x o x o / 168 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 169 | | 170 | +----> Button 171 +--------> Ground 172 173 However, as time passed, extensions to this standard developed, and these 174 were not compatible with each other:: 175 176 177 Atari 130, 800/XL/XE MSX 178 179 +-----------> Power 180 +---------> Right | +---------> Right 181 | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left 182 | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down 183 | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up 184 | | | | | | | | | 185 _____________ _____________ 186 5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 187 \ x o o o / \ o o o o / 188 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 189 | | | | | | | 190 | | +----> Button | | | +----> Button 1 191 | +------> Power | | +------> Button 2 192 +--------> Ground | +--------> Output 3 193 +----------> Ground 194 195 Amstrad CPC Commodore C64 196 197 +-----------> Analog Y 198 +---------> Right | +---------> Right 199 | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left 200 | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down 201 | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up 202 | | | | | | | | | 203 _____________ _____________ 204 5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 205 \ x o o o / \ o o o o / 206 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 207 | | | | | | | 208 | | +----> Button 1 | | | +----> Button 209 | +------> Button 2 | | +------> Power 210 +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground 211 +----------> Analog X 212 213 Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3 Amiga 1200 214 215 +-----------> Up +-----------> Button 3 216 | +---------> Fire | +---------> Right 217 | | | | +-------> Left 218 | | +-----> Ground | | | +-----> Down 219 | | | | | | | +---> Up 220 | | | | | | | | 221 _____________ _____________ 222 5 \ o o x o x / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 223 \ o o o o / \ o o o o / 224 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 225 | | | | | | | | 226 | | | +----> Right | | | +----> Button 1 227 | | +------> Left | | +------> Power 228 | +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground 229 +----------> Down +----------> Button 2 230 231 And there were many others. 232 233 Multisystem joysticks using db9.c 234 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 235 236 For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver 237 was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but 238 the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything. 239 240 For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the 241 parallel port like this:: 242 243 (pin 1) -----> Power 244 (pin 18) -----> Ground 245 246 (pin 2) -----> Up 247 (pin 3) -----> Down 248 (pin 4) -----> Left 249 (pin 5) -----> Right 250 (pin 6) -----> Button 1 251 252 However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it), 253 you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup 254 resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this:: 255 256 (pin 2) ------------+------> Up 257 Resistor | 258 (pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+ 259 260 Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks / 261 gamepads the pullups are not needed. 262 263 For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on 264 the parallel port:: 265 266 (pin 7) -----> Button 2 267 268 And that's it. 269 270 On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with 271 the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c 272 driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2) 273 274 Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c 275 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 276 277 For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or 278 want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is 279 possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types, 280 including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks. 281 282 However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at 283 once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and 284 not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your 285 joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first 286 if you want to use gamecon.c. 287 288 Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes, 289 and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button 290 the same as for db9, however with the diodes between:: 291 292 Diodes 293 (pin 2) -----|<|----> Up 294 (pin 3) -----|<|----> Down 295 (pin 4) -----|<|----> Left 296 (pin 5) -----|<|----> Right 297 (pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1 298 299 For two button sticks you also connect the other button:: 300 301 (pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2 302 303 And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in 304 this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described 305 for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin 306 for each joystick. The power source is shared:: 307 308 Data ------------+-----> Ground 309 Resistor | 310 Power --[10kOhm]--+ 311 312 And that's all, here we go! 313 314 Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c 315 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 316 317 The TurboGraFX interface, designed by 318 319 Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de> 320 321 allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In 322 Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. However, 323 since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver 324 supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the 325 interface, see: 326 327 http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html 328 329 Sony Playstation 330 ---------------- 331 332 The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX 333 controller (compatible with DirectPadPro):: 334 335 +---------+---------+---------+ 336 9 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel 337 \________|_________|________/ port pins 338 | | | | | | 339 | | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4) 340 | | | | +------------> Select --- (3) 341 | | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9) 342 | | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25) 343 | +-------------------------> Command --- (2) 344 +----------------------------> Data --- (one of 10,11,12,13,15) 345 346 The driver supports these controllers: 347 348 * Standard PSX Pad 349 * NegCon PSX Pad 350 * Analog PSX Pad (red mode) 351 * Analog PSX Pad (green mode) 352 * PSX Rumble Pad 353 * PSX DDR Pad 354 355 Sega 356 ---- 357 358 All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button 359 Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL 360 logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver. 361 362 Sega Master System 363 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 364 365 The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button 366 Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding 367 parallel port pins, and the following schematic:: 368 369 +-----------> Power 370 | +---------> Right 371 | | +-------> Left 372 | | | +-----> Down 373 | | | | +---> Up 374 | | | | | 375 _____________ 376 5 \ o o o o o / 1 377 \ o o x o / 378 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 379 | | | 380 | | +----> Button 1 381 | +--------> Ground 382 +----------> Button 2 383 384 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive 385 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 386 387 The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension 388 to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use 389 the following schematic:: 390 391 +-----------> Power 392 | +---------> Right 393 | | +-------> Left 394 | | | +-----> Down 395 | | | | +---> Up 396 | | | | | 397 _____________ 398 5 \ o o o o o / 1 399 \ o o o o / 400 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 401 | | | | 402 | | | +----> Button 1 403 | | +------> Select 404 | +--------> Ground 405 +----------> Button 2 406 407 The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port:: 408 409 (pin 14) -----> Select 410 411 The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c 412 413 Sega Saturn 414 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 415 416 Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like 417 Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still 418 handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything 419 else. Use this schematic:: 420 421 +-----------> Select 1 422 | +---------> Power 423 | | +-------> Up 424 | | | +-----> Down 425 | | | | +---> Ground 426 | | | | | 427 _____________ 428 5 \ o o o o o / 1 429 \ o o o o / 430 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 431 | | | | 432 | | | +----> Select 2 433 | | +------> Right 434 | +--------> Left 435 +----------> Power 436 437 Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the 438 parallel port:: 439 440 (pin 14) -----> Select 1 441 (pin 16) -----> Select 2 442 443 The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for 444 Multi joysticks using db9.c 445 446 Amiga CD32 447 ---------- 448 449 Amiga CD32 joypad uses the following pinout:: 450 451 +-----------> Button 3 452 | +---------> Right 453 | | +-------> Left 454 | | | +-----> Down 455 | | | | +---> Up 456 | | | | | 457 _____________ 458 5 \ o o o o o / 1 459 \ o o o o / 460 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 461 | | | | 462 | | | +----> Button 1 463 | | +------> Power 464 | +--------> Ground 465 +----------> Button 2 466 467 It can be connected to the parallel port and driven by db9.c driver. It needs the following wiring: 468 469 ============ ============= 470 CD32 pad Parallel port 471 ============ ============= 472 1 (Up) 2 (D0) 473 2 (Down) 3 (D1) 474 3 (Left) 4 (D2) 475 4 (Right) 5 (D3) 476 5 (Button 3) 14 (AUTOFD) 477 6 (Button 1) 17 (SELIN) 478 7 (+5V) 1 (STROBE) 479 8 (Gnd) 18 (Gnd) 480 9 (Button 2) 7 (D5) 481 ============ ============= 482 483 The drivers 484 =========== 485 486 There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as 487 described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads. 488 Here are described their command lines: 489 490 gamecon.c 491 --------- 492 493 Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It 494 uses the following kernel/module command line:: 495 496 gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5 497 498 Where ``port`` the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 499 500 And ``pad1`` to ``pad5`` are pad types connected to different data input pins 501 (10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file. 502 503 The types are: 504 505 ===== ============================= 506 Type Joystick/Pad 507 ===== ============================= 508 0 None 509 1 SNES pad 510 2 NES pad 511 4 Multisystem 1-button joystick 512 5 Multisystem 2-button joystick 513 6 N64 pad 514 7 Sony PSX controller 515 8 Sony PSX DDR controller 516 9 SNES mouse 517 ===== ============================= 518 519 The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used, so 520 hot swapping should work (but is not recommended). 521 522 Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use 523 gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two 524 more parallel ports. 525 526 There are two options specific to PSX driver portion. gamecon.psx_delay sets 527 the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should 528 work but you can try lowering it for better performance. If your pads don't 529 respond try raising it until they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the 530 driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are 531 registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes. 532 533 db9.c 534 ----- 535 536 Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the 537 db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line:: 538 539 db9.dev=port,type 540 541 Where ``port`` is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 542 543 Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If 544 your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this. 545 Old parallel ports may not have this feature. 546 547 ``Type`` is the type of joystick or pad attached: 548 549 ===== ====================================================== 550 Type Joystick/Pad 551 ===== ====================================================== 552 0 None 553 1 Multisystem 1-button joystick 554 2 Multisystem 2-button joystick 555 3 Genesis pad (3+1 buttons) 556 5 Genesis pad (5+1 buttons) 557 6 Genesis pad (6+2 buttons) 558 7 Saturn pad (8 buttons) 559 8 Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) 560 9 Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) 561 10 Amiga CD32 pad 562 ===== ====================================================== 563 564 Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you 565 can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two 566 more joysticks/pads. 567 568 turbografx.c 569 ------------ 570 571 The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line:: 572 573 turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7 574 575 Where ``port`` is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 576 577 ``jsX`` is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the 578 interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1. 579 580 Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can 581 use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters 582 for two more interfaces. 583 584 PC parallel port pinout 585 ======================= 586 587 :: 588 589 .----------------------------------------. 590 At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 / 591 \ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 / 592 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 593 594 ====== ======= ============= 595 Pin Name Description 596 ====== ======= ============= 597 1 /STROBE Strobe 598 2-9 D0-D7 Data Bit 0-7 599 10 /ACK Acknowledge 600 11 BUSY Busy 601 12 PE Paper End 602 13 SELIN Select In 603 14 /AUTOFD Autofeed 604 15 /ERROR Error 605 16 /INIT Initialize 606 17 /SEL Select 607 18-25 GND Signal Ground 608 ====== ======= ============= 609 610 611 That's all, folks! Have fun!
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