PC MAME 5.25" DB15-to-USB joystick connection device

[MtothaJ]

Maybe this will be useful for someone thinking of a controller solution for PC MAME - just put together this device to connect NG DB15 standard joysticks / pads to a PC for use on i.a. MAME. Since its a 5.25" form it slides right into a standard 5.25" PC bay.



Parts used:

- old, broken and gutted 5,25" CD/DVD drive for the case with two DB15 male connectors on the main panel
- two 'zero delay' USB encoder boards with cabling (http://www.ebay.com/itm/172114762675?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT) - set of 2 for 20 USD
- USB 3.0 mother board header connector to 2 USB female connectors - used to plug the USB cords from the encoder boards internally as opposed to running them out the back of the PC case and connecting to the motherboards IO back panel - about 5-6 USD

Work in progress:




The zero delay USB encoder boards work great and are recognized right of the bat as generic USB gampads in both Win 7 and 8.1 and easy to set up in MAME. I have however a few quibbles concerning their build quality though:
- no separate connector for 5V (needed if e.g. you want to use a Neo Geo CD pad) - need to solder to the USB 5V solder point underneath the connector or cut in directly into this line.
- markings on the board are wrong - 5V line on USB connector is denoted as GND
- cable colours seem wrong - for the controls signal cables are black and grounds are red, USB cable colours are also wrong. Obviously its not rocket science as to what should be connected to what, but since the instruction card is pretty sketchy its good to prod around with a multimeter at first just to get an idea as to what is what
- soldering of the connectors for the joystick wires to the PCB are pretty crappy - if you try to remove a connector a few times the connector will lift from the board, so I redid the soldering, but truth be told once everything is connected you are unlikely to mess around with these connectors ever again anyway.

All in all it works great and is pretty convenient.

The other way in which one could approach this is to put the PCB inside of the joystick and connect via USB although in such a scenario OEM NG sticks and pads are out of the scope and one is limited to only the particular stick where the encoder PCB is installed.

Thoughts / comments and ideas how to improve welcome.

 

[kuze]

Looks great man! Nice work. I'm tempted to do something similar myself now.

If you didn't have a DVD drive to sac, you could probably use something like this and glue the door shut:
http://www.amazon.com/desktop-computer-companion-accessories-Cosmos/dp/B006VAD2C6/

 

[Electric Grave]

Kinda cool but with a Mad Catz stick and all why would you need a Neo Stick in there? I mean, I feel that SFxTK is a great stick setup, plus a couple buttons and you're cooking. The Neo CD pads are awesome so I can see the appeal. PS3 Neo CD Pads are USB and 6 button on the face, pretty slick too, just a heads up.

I would have loved this 15 years ago though, it would have been amazing, remembering the days of hacking keyboards and USB pads, lol.

 

[MtothaJ]

Looks great man! Nice work. I'm tempted to do something similar myself now.

If you didn't have a DVD drive to sac, you could probably use something like this and glue the door shut:
http://www.amazon.com/desktop-computer-companion-accessories-Cosmos/dp/B006VAD2C6/

View attachment 34155

Thanks, I really like that storage draw idea, would probably look cleaner too. The real challenge is to neatly affix the DB15 ports so that the are nicely aligned and that the mounting holes aren't too big - I used a soldering iron to melt the plastic but its pretty fiddly. One other idea I had was to look for an old PC PCI gameport card which had two DB15 ports and connect the joysticks that way, however found none.

Kinda cool but with a Mad Catz stick and all why would you need a Neo Stick in there? I mean, I feel that SFxTK is a great stick setup, plus a couple buttons and you're cooking. The Neo CD pads are awesome so I can see the appeal. PS3 Neo CD Pads are USB and 6 button on the face, pretty slick too, just a heads up.

I would have loved this 15 years ago though, it would have been amazing, remembering the days of hacking keyboards and USB pads, lol.

The Madcatz stick is DB15 modded and the USB circuitry disconnected. Initially I had it dual modded but this was giving problems (random autofire would turn on etc.) and also from the one time I tried to use it with PC MAME it was not recognized so I went DB15 only. Supposedly the XBOX version works fine on a PC.

 

[Electric Grave]

Yeah, the XBOX 360 works flawless on PC, never had a problem at all.

Edit: Knock on wood, lol

 

[GohanX]

The Madcatz stick is DB15 modded and the USB circuitry disconnected. Initially I had it dual modded but this was giving problems (random autofire would turn on etc.) and also from the one time I tried to use it with PC MAME it was not recognized so I went DB15 only. Supposedly the XBOX version works fine on a PC.

Do you have 5V hooked up on the DB15? That's usually the problem I see when people add DB15 to existing sticks, they don't connect the 5V line or ground the unused pins and wackiness ensues.

 

[MtothaJ]

Do you have 5V hooked up on the DB15? That's usually the problem I see when people add DB15 to existing sticks, they don't connect the 5V line or ground the unused pins and wackiness ensues.

Yep. More info here: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showt...o-TE-DB15-Neo-Geo-mod-wth-pictures&highlight=

 

[Heinz]

This is great to see, I saw you post this somewhere else on here and it's had me thinking. If the mame pc ever ends up on my PVM this is exactly what I will do. Great job!

 

[xsq]

Good solution, looks nice too. I always wanted to get a DB15 punch, that'd make the cleanest holes, but they are too expansive.

For the boards you could also always hack an old USB pad, I did that some months ago