7800 Adapter

[jferio]

I think I'd willingly modify my 7800 to fit this if it comes into fruition. Playing Xevious with the NES Advantage would be worth the price of admission. Not to mention the whole 'new world of controllers' opened up in general terms.

 

The only real concern I would have (and it's small because I have it covered elsewhere even if it's an actual issue) would be having it still work completely in 2600 mode as well.

[frunobulax]

Just got finished building the board and installing the first of 2 NES ports in my 7800.

 

It's already set up to work 2 NES controllers but I only have one NES jack hooked up right now because I got tired of soldering and wanted to play some games!

 

The mess of cables going to the NES jack from the board is temporary (hence it's sloppiness) until I make the right breakout cable to handle both NES ports, but it works for testing one at a time.

 

 

This version includes it's own clock generator so no need to borrow the clock from the system anymore. It also now uses both A and B as 2600 "fire" buttons (instead of just 'B' like perviously) as well as work both the right and left button respectively in 7800 mode.

 

 

I'll go into detail about it all when it's done, but I'm thinking I'll take that to the hardware forum rather than this thread.

[psquare75]

I made one for myself that uses a microcontroller to read the shift register inside the NES/SNES controllers and pass the data to the Atari port. I set it up to use SNES controllers because I had a broken SNES, at the time, and pulled the socket from that. It would work just as well with NES controller if I made a little dongle type adapter with a NES and a SNES controller extension cable or installed a NES socket. The controller will function as a two-button 7800 controller or one button on the 2600/C64/Atari 8-bits. It will basically work on any system that uses the Atari controller pinout as long as it provides +5vdc on the port. It doesn't work on the ColecoVision for that reason, it would need a battery or external power source for this system.

 

All in all the parts cost was around $10, but labor wise was several hours. I could see it costing more if I had to hack up NES/SNES controller cables as they seem to be about $5 each -- and the NES ones seem htf.

 

 

 

Why not just go with this version?

[jferio]

I'll go into detail about it all when it's done, but I'm thinking I'll take that to the hardware forum rather than this thread.

 

If you do a new post, can you post the link to it here?

[frunobulax]

I made one for myself that uses a microcontroller to read the shift register inside the NES/SNES controllers and pass the data to the Atari port. I set it up to use SNES controllers because I had a broken SNES, at the time, and pulled the socket from that. It would work just as well with NES controller if I made a little dongle type adapter with a NES and a SNES controller extension cable or installed a NES socket. The controller will function as a two-button 7800 controller or one button on the 2600/C64/Atari 8-bits. It will basically work on any system that uses the Atari controller pinout as long as it provides +5vdc on the port. It doesn't work on the ColecoVision for that reason, it would need a battery or external power source for this system.

 

All in all the parts cost was around $10, but labor wise was several hours. I could see it costing more if I had to hack up NES/SNES controller cables as they seem to be about $5 each -- and the NES ones seem htf.

 

 

 

Why not just go with this version?

 

Well, primarily my reasons were:

 

1. Didn't know of that version (or even this forum) before I started this project.

2. When I set out on designing it I wanted to do something using parts that were around cheaply at the time the 7800 was new.

3. I happened to have a ton of logic IC's laying around and wanted to put them to use.

4. I was looking for a 'bigger' (read: longer lasting) project. If I went with a microcontroller, it would have been finished that same day and I would have had to find something else to do. (That'd be like pulling out a 30 piece jigsaw puzzle when I was really looking for a 3000 piece-r.)

 

 

To each their own though.

 

 

If you do a new post, can you post the link to it here?

 

Of course!

 

 

Here are some pictures of the dual port install:

 

Everything unplugs from the controller board so it can be removed, replaced, upgraded, or worked on. The NES jacks from Parrallax (which come molded with little ears) slide down into clips I made out of left over plastic from cutting out the holes. So they can be removed easily, but are solid enough to not move when inserting or removing a controller plug. I put both jacks on one side of the 7800 so that one could plug in an NES advantage to both ports without an extension, or having to split the advantage's cord to reach to both sides.

 

 

This is the underside of the board when I had it out to fix a misswired chip I found today when testing the second controller:

[+Allan]

frunobulax,

Would you consider making a run of these boards so those of us with soldering skills could put one together?

 

Allan

[PacManPlus]

That was going to be my question as well

[doctorclu]

 

 

Here are some pictures of the dual port install:

 

 

That is some cool work BTW.

 

NES ports on a 7800. Who wudda thunked.

[frunobulax]

frunobulax,

Would you consider making a run of these boards so those of us with soldering skills could put one together?

 

Allan

 

I can give you all the block diagram, and the schematic (still have to draw up the final one as it stands now) and someone with a little soldering skill could put another together. You may even come up with a better solution on how to put it on a board. I don't think the type of perfboard I used was intended to have this many IC's jammed on it... There is literally NO WHERE else I could put another chip without cutting some traces. I'm toying with the idea of working on a PCB for it. That would make it a fairly straightforward 'kit' to assemble at home.

[jferio]

The block diagram would be wonderful, even though the board looks like it's one step shy of wirewrapped prototypes...