Wiring AES/CMVS joysticks

Wiring up my custom sticks tonight.

I'm doing Neo through DB-15 alongside a toodles cthulhu board for PC/PS3 support.

I was planning to wire up the cthulhu and then just add extra lines from the cthulhu to the DB-15 for all the buttons used for the Neo + GND.

When I was wiring up the DB-15's for the back of the controller (I'm using some joystick extension cables to hook it to my CMVS) I realized one of the pins is labeled for +5v coming from the system. The pinout diagram I have is for an AES which i followed when I built My CMVS, so it has one pin on its controller ports hooked to +5v.

Question is, why is this there? With a line for every button + Ground what is this 5v for? I didn't think I needed it for my joystick. Do I just ignore it?

What about official Neo pads and sticks, do they use it?

I guess the other question would be, with the capability to have a 5v line running to my stick that isn't needed anyways could I just use it for some LED's or something?

The +5v is needed for the Neo CD and New Style controllers.

cd pad uses +5V but the old style aes sticks do not. Just wire it up to your ports and if it's needed (say you pop in a pad) it will be there, else it won't be used (aes sticks). And if you are doing custom stick connections, then you can use that +5 for diodes,leds or w/e you may need some voltage for...

xiao_haozi said:

And if you are doing custom stick connections, then you can use that +5 for diodes,leds or w/e you may need some voltage for...

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...I'll add an ipod dock.



Thanks to the both of you!

Finch said:

...I'll add an ipod dock.



Thanks to the both of you!

Click to expand...

Run out to some USB.... USB fish tank ftw!

on a more useful note :-D

if I wanted to add a LED to the stick, that lit up whenever it was plugged into a powered on system, do I need to do anything special to stop voltage going into the cthulhu when It's plugged into the Neo? Since I'd have a 5v line from the DB15 port and from the cthulhu both running to a LED.

I figure giving the cthulhu 5v when it's not in use is fine, but should I do something in case some idiot tried to plug it into a PS3 and Neo at the same time. I can't imagine why someone would, but y'know, just in case.

Do I just add a diode on the 5v line running to the LED to keep everything one way?

Why are you running +5V from the db15 to the pcb board?

Why not wire the db15 directly to your buttons?

I'm not exactly

But if there was a LED that lit up if i plugged it into a Neo or a PS3 its going to need 5v lines running to the LED from both sources, essentially connecting them.

Finch said:

I'm not exactly

But if there was a LED that lit up if i plugged it into a Neo or a PS3 its going to need 5v lines running to the LED from both sources, essentially connecting them.

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Why would both be plugged in at the same time?

Xian Xi said:

Why would both be plugged in at the same time?

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They won't. It just felt like kind of a sloppy job or something to do it that way.

Just wondering if there was a correct way to do this. I know it'll never be an issue with these sticks, but if it was something else it would be a terrible design.

I guess it was more of a general electronics question than a real issue :-/