| Linux Joystick parport drivers v2.0 |
| (c) 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz> |
| (c) 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de> |
| Sponsored by SuSE |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| 0. Disclaimer |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that |
| it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can |
| happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick |
| and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem. |
| |
| 1. Intro |
| ~~~~~~~~ |
| The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not |
| originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of |
| that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel |
| port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing |
| both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for |
| connecting such devices. |
| |
| 2. Devices supported |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Many console and 8-bit computer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The |
| following subsections discuss usage of each. |
| |
| 2.1 NES and SNES |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to |
| connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and |
| 165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate |
| with them. |
| |
| All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from |
| the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES |
| and/or SNES gamepads and/or SNES mice connected to the parallel port at once, |
| the output lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available |
| input lines is assigned to each gamepad. |
| |
| This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one |
| you'll use for NES, SNES gamepads and SNES mice. |
| |
| The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power |
| source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power |
| for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through |
| cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red |
| wire is +5V). |
| |
| If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from |
| some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is |
| needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other |
| hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the |
| port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work. |
| |
| (pin 9) -----> Power |
| |
| Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel |
| ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your |
| case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel |
| port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together. |
| |
| Diodes |
| (pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power |
| | |
| (pin 8) ----|>|-------+ |
| | |
| (pin 7) ----|>|-------+ |
| | |
| <and so on> : |
| | |
| (pin 4) ----|>|-------+ |
| |
| Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the |
| pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground. |
| |
| (pin 18) -----> Ground |
| |
| NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the |
| serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port, |
| respectively. |
| |
| (pin 2) -----> Clock |
| (pin 3) -----> Latch |
| |
| And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and |
| each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are: |
| |
| (pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data |
| (pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data |
| (pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data |
| (pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data |
| (pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data |
| |
| Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel |
| port. |
| |
| This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to |
| the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there |
| are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary |
| connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon |
| connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo |
| A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is |
| either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads |
| also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course. |
| |
| Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads and mice |
| |
| +----> Power +-----------------------\ |
| | 7 | o o o o | x x o | 1 |
| 5 +---------+ 7 +-----------------------/ |
| | x x o \ | | | | | |
| | o o o o | | | | | +-> Ground |
| 4 +------------+ 1 | | | +------------> Data |
| | | | | | | +---------------> Latch |
| | | | +-> Ground | +------------------> Clock |
| | | +----> Clock +---------------------> Power |
| | +-------> Latch |
| +----------> Data |
| |
| Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads |
| |
| +---------> Clock +-----------------> Data |
| | +-------> Latch | +---> Ground |
| | | +-----> Data | | |
| | | | ___________________ |
| _____________ 8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1 |
| 5 \ x o o o x / 1 \ o x x o x x o / |
| \ x o x o / 15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9 |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 | | | |
| | | | | +----> Clock |
| | +----> Power | +----------> Latch |
| +--------> Ground +----------------> Power |
| |
| 2.2 Multisystem joysticks |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard |
| for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin |
| connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without |
| hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64, |
| Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these |
| joysticks are called "Multisystem". |
| |
| Now their pinout: |
| |
| +---------> Right |
| | +-------> Left |
| | | +-----> Down |
| | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | |
| _____________ |
| 5 \ x o o o o / 1 |
| \ x o x o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | |
| | +----> Button |
| +--------> Ground |
| |
| However, as time passed, extensions to this standard developed, and these |
| were not compatible with each other: |
| |
| |
| Atari 130, 800/XL/XE MSX |
| |
| +-----------> Power |
| +---------> Right | +---------> Right |
| | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left |
| | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| _____________ _____________ |
| 5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ x o o o / \ o o o o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | +----> Button | | | +----> Button 1 |
| | +------> Power | | +------> Button 2 |
| +--------> Ground | +--------> Output 3 |
| +----------> Ground |
| |
| Amstrad CPC Commodore C64 |
| |
| +-----------> Analog Y |
| +---------> Right | +---------> Right |
| | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left |
| | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| _____________ _____________ |
| 5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ x o o o / \ o o o o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | +----> Button 1 | | | +----> Button |
| | +------> Button 2 | | +------> Power |
| +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground |
| +----------> Analog X |
| |
| Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3 Amiga 1200 |
| |
| +-----------> Up +-----------> Button 3 |
| | +---------> Fire | +---------> Right |
| | | | | +-------> Left |
| | | +-----> Ground | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | | | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | | | | | |
| _____________ _____________ |
| 5 \ o o x o x / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ o o o o / \ o o o o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | +----> Right | | | +----> Button 1 |
| | | +------> Left | | +------> Power |
| | +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground |
| +----------> Down +----------> Button 2 |
| |
| And there were many others. |
| |
| 2.2.1 Multisystem joysticks using db9.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver |
| was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but |
| the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything. |
| |
| For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the |
| parallel port like this: |
| |
| (pin 1) -----> Power |
| (pin 18) -----> Ground |
| |
| (pin 2) -----> Up |
| (pin 3) -----> Down |
| (pin 4) -----> Left |
| (pin 5) -----> Right |
| (pin 6) -----> Button 1 |
| |
| However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it), |
| you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup |
| resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this: |
| |
| (pin 2) ------------+------> Up |
| Resistor | |
| (pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+ |
| |
| Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks / |
| gamepads the pullups are not needed. |
| |
| For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on |
| the parallel port. |
| |
| (pin 7) -----> Button 2 |
| |
| And that's it. |
| |
| On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with |
| the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c |
| driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2) |
| |
| 2.2.2 Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or |
| want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is |
| possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types, |
| including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks. |
| |
| However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at |
| once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and |
| not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your |
| joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first |
| if you want to use gamecon.c. |
| |
| Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes, |
| and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button |
| the same as for db9, however with the diodes inbetween. |
| |
| Diodes |
| (pin 2) -----|<|----> Up |
| (pin 3) -----|<|----> Down |
| (pin 4) -----|<|----> Left |
| (pin 5) -----|<|----> Right |
| (pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1 |
| |
| For two button sticks you also connect the other button. |
| |
| (pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2 |
| |
| And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in |
| this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described |
| for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin |
| for each joystick. The power source is shared. |
| |
| Data ------------+-----> Ground |
| Resistor | |
| Power --[10kOhm]--+ |
| |
| And that's all, here we go! |
| |
| 2.2.3 Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The TurboGraFX interface, designed by |
| |
| Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de> |
| |
| allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In |
| Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. However, |
| since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver |
| supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the |
| interface, see |
| |
| http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html |
| |
| 2.3 Sony Playstation |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX |
| controller (compatible with DirectPadPro): |
| |
| +---------+---------+---------+ |
| 9 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel |
| \________|_________|________/ port pins |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4) |
| | | | | +------------> Select --- (3) |
| | | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9) |
| | | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25) |
| | +-------------------------> Command --- (2) |
| +----------------------------> Data --- (one of 10,11,12,13,15) |
| |
| The driver supports these controllers: |
| |
| * Standard PSX Pad |
| * NegCon PSX Pad |
| * Analog PSX Pad (red mode) |
| * Analog PSX Pad (green mode) |
| * PSX Rumble Pad |
| * PSX DDR Pad |
| |
| 2.4 Sega |
| ~~~~~~~~ |
| All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button |
| Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL |
| logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver. |
| |
| 2.4.1 Sega Master System |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button |
| Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding |
| parallel port pins, and the following schematic: |
| |
| +-----------> Power |
| | +---------> Right |
| | | +-------> Left |
| | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | | |
| _____________ |
| 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ o o x o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | |
| | | +----> Button 1 |
| | +--------> Ground |
| +----------> Button 2 |
| |
| 2.4.2 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension |
| to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use |
| the following schematic: |
| |
| +-----------> Power |
| | +---------> Right |
| | | +-------> Left |
| | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | | +---> Up |
| | | | | | |
| _____________ |
| 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ o o o o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | | |
| | | | +----> Button 1 |
| | | +------> Select |
| | +--------> Ground |
| +----------> Button 2 |
| |
| The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port. |
| |
| (pin 14) -----> Select |
| |
| The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c |
| |
| 2.4.3 Sega Saturn |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like |
| Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still |
| handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything |
| else. Use this schematic: |
| |
| +-----------> Select 1 |
| | +---------> Power |
| | | +-------> Up |
| | | | +-----> Down |
| | | | | +---> Ground |
| | | | | | |
| _____________ |
| 5 \ o o o o o / 1 |
| \ o o o o / |
| 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 |
| | | | | |
| | | | +----> Select 2 |
| | | +------> Right |
| | +--------> Left |
| +----------> Power |
| |
| Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the |
| parallel port. |
| |
| (pin 14) -----> Select 1 |
| (pin 16) -----> Select 2 |
| |
| The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for |
| Multi joysticks using db9.c |
| |
| 3. The drivers |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as |
| described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads. |
| Here are described their command lines: |
| |
| 3.1 gamecon.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It |
| uses the following kernel/module command line: |
| |
| gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5 |
| |
| Where 'port' the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). |
| |
| And 'pad1' to 'pad5' are pad types connected to different data input pins |
| (10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file. |
| |
| The types are: |
| |
| Type | Joystick/Pad |
| -------------------- |
| 0 | None |
| 1 | SNES pad |
| 2 | NES pad |
| 4 | Multisystem 1-button joystick |
| 5 | Multisystem 2-button joystick |
| 6 | N64 pad |
| 7 | Sony PSX controller |
| 8 | Sony PSX DDR controller |
| 9 | SNES mouse |
| |
| The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used, so |
| hot swapping should work (but is not recommended). |
| |
| Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use |
| gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two |
| more parallel ports. |
| |
| There are two options specific to PSX driver portion. gamecon.psx_delay sets |
| the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should |
| work but you can try lowering it for better performance. If your pads don't |
| respond try raising it until they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the |
| driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are |
| registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes. |
| |
| 3.2 db9.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~ |
| Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the |
| db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line: |
| |
| db9.dev=port,type |
| |
| Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). |
| |
| Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If |
| your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this. |
| Old parallel ports may not have this feature. |
| |
| 'Type' is the type of joystick or pad attached: |
| |
| Type | Joystick/Pad |
| -------------------- |
| 0 | None |
| 1 | Multisystem 1-button joystick |
| 2 | Multisystem 2-button joystick |
| 3 | Genesis pad (3+1 buttons) |
| 5 | Genesis pad (5+1 buttons) |
| 6 | Genesis pad (6+2 buttons) |
| 7 | Saturn pad (8 buttons) |
| 8 | Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) |
| 9 | Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) |
| 10 | Amiga CD32 pad |
| |
| Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you |
| can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two |
| more joysticks/pads. |
| |
| 3.3 turbografx.c |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line: |
| |
| turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7 |
| |
| Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). |
| |
| 'jsX' is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the |
| interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1. |
| |
| Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can |
| use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters |
| for two more interfaces. |
| |
| 3.4 PC parallel port pinout |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| .----------------------------------------. |
| At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 / |
| \ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 / |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Pin | Name | Description |
| ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~ |
| 1 | /STROBE | Strobe |
| 2-9 | D0-D7 | Data Bit 0-7 |
| 10 | /ACK | Acknowledge |
| 11 | BUSY | Busy |
| 12 | PE | Paper End |
| 13 | SELIN | Select In |
| 14 | /AUTOFD | Autofeed |
| 15 | /ERROR | Error |
| 16 | /INIT | Initialize |
| 17 | /SEL | Select |
| 18-25 | GND | Signal Ground |
| |
| 3.5 End |
| ~~~~~~~ |
| That's all, folks! Have fun! |
