Remote Joysticks for Atari 2600/800

[Divya16]

How good are the Atari Remote Joysticks for Atari 2600? Are they transmitting just the 4 I/O pins and trigger pin or paddles as well? I suppose they work for Atari 800 as well. I am thinking of getting a couple from this guy for use with Atari 800, but he does not have the adapter for it. Anyone have the spec for the AC adapter?

[BigO]

How good are the Atari Remote Joysticks for Atari 2600? Are they transmitting just the 4 I/O pins and trigger pin or paddles as well? I suppose they work for Atari 800 as well. I am thinking of getting a couple from this guy for use with Atari 800, but he does not have the adapter for it. Anyone have the spec for the AC adapter?

I don't know this from any actual research, but I'll give a 99.99% chance that it's only the joystick pins. It would require quite a bit more circuitry to emulate the paddles and I haven't heard of a wireless paddle setup.

 

The 3rd party wireless joysticks I have actually use the 2600's power supply. It plugs into the wireless receiver and has a cable coming out of the receiver that plugs into the console to feed power to the console. So, the receiver doesn't have a separate adapter. It's possible that the Atari ones work that way. If you look at a picture of the receiver and it has a plug hanging out on a wire, then that's most likely the case. None of the pictures I found online specifically show that, but there does appear to be a power cable coming out of the receiver.

[jahfish]

yes, it's the same way the original atari remote control joysticks work ... they also have that cable so that u only need one power unit for everything!

 

get them .... it's the biggest heaviest joystick you'll ever have!

 

(no homo!)

[machf]

Here's an ad from a Spanish magazine (Muy Interesante #38, VII-1984, pp. 10-11) advertising the remote joysticks as equipment for the 800XL, so I see no reason why they wouldn't work with the 800 too, and not just the VCS... no mention of the power supply, though. If it did indeed use the VCS's power supply, then it's just a simple 9V DC 500 mA supply with a standard plug (+ at the tip).

 

I've heard they were very uncomfortable to handle, given the size of the bases (the batteries and required additional circuitry required more space than was available inside the standard joystick casing), so keep that in mind...

[atariksi]

How good are the Atari Remote Joysticks for Atari 2600? Are they transmitting just the 4 I/O pins and trigger pin or paddles as well? I suppose they work for Atari 800 as well. I am thinking of getting a couple from this guy for use with Atari 800, but he does not have the adapter for it. Anyone have the spec for the AC adapter?

I don't know this from any actual research, but I'll give a 99.99% chance that it's only the joystick pins. It would require quite a bit more circuitry to emulate the paddles and I haven't heard of a wireless paddle setup.

 

The 3rd party wireless joysticks I have actually use the 2600's power supply. It plugs into the wireless receiver and has a cable coming out of the receiver that plugs into the console to feed power to the console. So, the receiver doesn't have a separate adapter. It's possible that the Atari ones work that way. If you look at a picture of the receiver and it has a plug hanging out on a wire, then that's most likely the case. None of the pictures I found online specifically show that, but there does appear to be a power cable coming out of the receiver.

 

Too bad it's unidirectional. It would be great if the 4 I/O signals were transmitted and received-- that could help build some custom wireless devices (and wireless communications with MPDOS).

 

I think the power supply for the Atari 2600 is incompatible with the Atari 800 although I have seen these Yamaha keyboards that have a spec for 10V-12V DC but seem to work fine with a 9V AC adapter.

[+hunmanik]

How good are the Atari Remote Joysticks for Atari 2600? Are they transmitting just the 4 I/O pins and trigger pin or paddles as well? I suppose they work for Atari 800 as well. I am thinking of getting a couple from this guy for use with Atari 800, but he does not have the adapter for it. Anyone have the spec for the AC adapter?

 

9 V DC 500 mA (4.5 W) Atari#CO16353/CA014034/CO10472/CX261

XEP80,SX212,2600,CX42 (center positive)

[Marius]

I think the power supply for the Atari 2600 is incompatible with the Atari 800 although I have seen these Yamaha keyboards that have a spec for 10V-12V DC but seem to work fine with a 9V AC adapter.

 

The power supply is only for the joystick receiver. It does not matter to which DB9-pin-joystick connector you connect it too. The 9V is not powering the computer. Only in case of the 2600 it was, so they did not have to deliver a power-adapter with the device. (or more positive thought: with the 2600 you can save one power-wall-connection )

 

Anyway I'm rather positive it only transfers joystick signal, because that is a digitial (ON / OFF) only signal. Transmitting and re-translating an analog signal (like in paddle controlers) is far more complexe.

 

Perhaps an idea to create it with a A/D converter on the paddle-sender-side. And a D/A converter to the receiver side.

 

Interesting.

 

Marius

[puppetmark]

Anyway I'm rather positive it only transfers joystick signal, because that is a digitial (ON / OFF) only signal. Transmitting and re-translating an analog signal (like in paddle controlers) is far more complexe.

 

Perhaps an idea to create it with a A/D converter on the paddle-sender-side. And a D/A converter to the receiver side.

 

Interesting.

 

Marius

 

A remote paddle is an interesting idea. I think transmitting an AM signal from a paddle to a receiver would give you the full range of the potentiometer in the paddle, but you still have to transmit a digital signal for the fire button. as long as the A/D converter was 8 bits (0 to 255) that might be the way to go. Perhaps a digital potentiometer at the receiving end. The other problem I see is having to mount a circuit board and batteries in the paddle controller. I think there is room for the circuit board but I am not sure about the battery; Perhaps on the outside where the decal is located.

 

Interesting idea indeed.

[atariksi]

Anyway I'm rather positive it only transfers joystick signal, because that is a digitial (ON / OFF) only signal. Transmitting and re-translating an analog signal (like in paddle controlers) is far more complexe.

 

Perhaps an idea to create it with a A/D converter on the paddle-sender-side. And a D/A converter to the receiver side.

 

Interesting.

 

Marius

 

A remote paddle is an interesting idea. I think transmitting an AM signal from a paddle to a receiver would give you the full range of the potentiometer in the paddle, but you still have to transmit a digital signal for the fire button. as long as the A/D converter was 8 bits (0 to 255) that might be the way to go. Perhaps a digital potentiometer at the receiving end. The other problem I see is having to mount a circuit board and batteries in the paddle controller. I think there is room for the circuit board but I am not sure about the battery; Perhaps on the outside where the decal is located.

 

Interesting idea indeed.

 

Perhaps, modifying a VCR remote may be a cheaper and lighter alternative and use one of those coin-type batteries.

[Divya16]

yes, it's the same way the original atari remote control joysticks work ... they also have that cable so that u only need one power unit for everything!

 

get them .... it's the biggest heaviest joystick you'll ever have!

 

(no homo!)

 

I just got the wireless joysticks. Yeah, they do have that little tail sticking out that goes into Atari 2600. They are not that heavy, however 9V battery probably would cost me more than the joystick. Probably need to see if they sell some cheap rechargeable 9V batteries w/charger.