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Can anyone help to identify this weird game controller?


Danjovic

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The backside is missing the identification label.

image.thumb.png.7087d5a349ee7f1f4d02f147915277c2.png

 

About a year ago when I acquired the controller, I have tried to find the controller by the name written on it (Mars) but haven't found nothing.

Now I found an advertisement of an identical controller that, according to the seller it is for PC and Saturn (the seller have only the Saturn cable though).

Now I am confident do plug it on a PC (as soon as I put it back to work). I hope to reverse engineer its protocol and make a USB adapter for it.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Danjovic said:

Yes, I have only the PC cable for this controller.

Tested using self made PC interface (link)

Only first pair of axes (1 /2) and 4 buttons responded, no response in other buttons, no signal of data output on buttons line (like sidewinder).

Have yet to try to run on old PC.

 

 

Clipboard01.jpg.b7dfff0db0a7171055bc9032a3b55f93.jpg

It may try to be a "smart controller", where setting a mode will cause button presses to do complex things.

Or it may employ a signaling mechanism similar to Sidewinder, but only when you press the right mode button(s).

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1 hour ago, ChildOfCv said:

where setting a mode will cause button presses to do complex things.

I have monitored the signals on the oscilloscope while I fiddled a lot with the buttons, but no response.

 

1 hour ago, ChildOfCv said:

a signaling mechanism similar to Sidewinder,

It is possible, maybe it is necessary to perform a defined pattern of readings within a given time to put the controller in a kind of extended mode, for example perform 3 consecutive readings in less than 16 milliseconds. 

4 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

Thanks for the link. I have a sidewinder here to interface with usb too and that will be very useful.

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2 hours ago, Danjovic said:

I have monitored the signals on the oscilloscope while I fiddled a lot with the buttons, but no response.

 

Maybe it is broke and that is why it was in the recycle bin?

 

No markings or such on the interior board or chips?

 

What does it look like in there?

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1 hour ago, fdr4prez said:

Maybe it is broke and that is why it was in the recycle bin?

Fortunately it is working,

By no response I mean, no response on the buttons lines and the axis other than for a standard analog joystick.

The modifier key (M1, M2, M3, MO and EXC.) they do respond as they change the state of the LEDs, but they do not modify the behaviour of the controller, that keeps working just like the PC standard joystick with 4 buttons. I was expecting to see the button lines changing in the form of a clock and a stream of data pretty much like the Sidewinder.

Maybe the advanced functions only work on Saturn or the controller requires some activation coming from PC to change from a "compatible mode" to an "advanced mode" where all buttons can be recognized.

I haven't opened the controller yet. I don't have much hope to find recognizable chips, but some markings on the board might be useful to bring some light.

 

 

 

 

 

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On 4/17/2020 at 7:29 PM, Serguei2 said:

Can Windows detect it?

Tested on a computer with a gameport. Windows XP can not recognize it. you have to choose manually the type of game controller.

It can work as a 4 button 2 axis controller and I have figured out that the modes T and S seems to work as turbo modes (auto fire) for the buttons.

Giving the options that the are presented to choose I suppose there is a lot of controllers that perform a proprietary initialization. Should investigate it further but need to make a better setup first.

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On 4/22/2020 at 10:39 PM, Danjovic said:

Tested on a computer with a gameport. Windows XP can not recognize it. you have to choose manually the type of game controller.

It can work as a 4 button 2 axis controller and I have figured out that the modes T and S seems to work as turbo modes (auto fire) for the buttons.

Giving the options that the are presented to choose I suppose there is a lot of controllers that perform a proprietary initialization. Should investigate it further but need to make a better setup first.

It might be possible it needs a driver to use all buttons.

 

Some joysticks and gamepads come with a disk/cd installer.

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1 hour ago, Serguei2 said:

It might be possible it needs a driver to use all buttons

Yeah I believe so!

I have bought the controller that I have seen advertised, I hope that it comes with a CD. On the worst case I can use the wiring from saturn cable that will come with the "new" controller and then build a new cable to extract the data using saturn protocol.

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