Starplex controller revealed

[Susuwatari]

I just got the 2 Starplex controllers I won from eBay in the mail today (seller was late to ship it because she never got paypal notice that I paid for 2 weeks! )

 

Anyway I took it apart to install a battery and noticed it was a simple autofire design.

 

U1 is LM3909 LED flasher/oscillator (obsolete)

Q1 is 2N4401 (any NPN transistor should work)

R1 is 33 ohms

C1 is 33uF 16v

 

When the switch is in normal position, the battery's disconnected and the fire button is connected directly to pin 6 of the controller cable.

 

When the switch is in Asterblast mode, the battery is connected and the fire button becomes an on/off switch (connected to ground of the IC). When pressed, the IC oscilates and drives the transistor through the resistor. The transistor then shorts pin 6 of the controller to ground. Pin 7 of the IC is not used and pin 3 and 6 have no connection.

 

One of the Al is welcome to post this info in the hardware section of the 2600 for future reference (in case someone has a dead controller)

 

Just one thing, both controller has different solder work. It appears they were hand assembled at factory. One controller the IC has all 8 pins soldered. The second one, only 5 pins were soldered (3, 6, and 7 were not soldered).

 

PS I originally tried to post the schematic in BMP form but AA forum said it wasn't allowed???

[Rob Mitchell]

Thanks for the info. I still have to wonder why Starplex went with a battery compartment and did not include a cable that had pin 7 available for +5v. Were they thinking of marketing the Starplex to be used with systems that did not have +5v available at the controller port?

 

It is easy to build an autofire circuit that can be included inline with a controller extension cable and activated by holding down the fire button.

 

I had a fire button go out on one of my Starplex controllers. I desoldered the button, unscrewed the solder pins from the button housing, and then I eventually removed a small piece of plastic to allow for better travel and contact. Reassembled and soldered back in place. Works great!

 

Systems that I have used the Starplex with:

 

Vectrex via special circuits and adapters.

Atari systems (2600, 7800, 5200, 8-bit)

Bally Astrocade via adapter

PC via Stelladaptor

 

The Starplex controller is my favorite!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Bruce Tomlin]

U1 is LM3909 LED flasher/oscillator (obsolete)

Wow, I remember when those were new. They were teh siht back in the day.

[Susuwatari]

About not using pin 7 for +5v, it may have to do with the design of LM3909. All the docs I've checked online shopws only 1.5v and 3v and I don't know if it can even use 5v. To step down from 5v would require more compoment than a couple pieces of wires and 2 metal clips. They only draw a few mA's so the power limit shouldn't have been an issue.

 

If I were to design a rapid fire circuit, I could use something more common like NOR or NAND gates. Sega Rapid Fire Adapter used NOR gates to provide 2 rapid fire output and they are available in TTL and CMOS and could run off of the +5v.