2 ps2 pad

[espee]

hi guys! i'm building an arcade cabinet and putting a ps2 inside. my problem is i want to have 2 control pads on EACH control port. 1 analog and 1 cheap generic pad where i could use a swtich to change from one pad to the other. i'll be hacking the generic pad to wire to my arcade control panel and want to have the ability to switch to the analog pad for analog games (which is majority of ps2 games). i've tried everything and all i ended up doing is shorting my ps1 (just to be safe) control port.
does ayone know how i can do this? is it even possible? Thanx!

[NFG]

Why on earth would you want to do this when every analogue pad also had a digital pad?  I think you're trying to solve whatever problem you have in entirely the wrong manner.

[Guest_espee]

i guess i didnt made it clear. its like this, i like to have an arcade stick AND an analog pad on the same port. like having xarcade AND a dual shock on the same port. because the xarcade works great for fighting games (tekken) and the analog pad for everything else (e.g. nba live). and i like the convenience of a switch so i wouldn't have the trouble of opening the cabinet just to change controllers.  

[Drewman21]

Yeah kinda still seems like over kill.  I would first try out a PS2 mult-tap with one on each plug and try to use two controllers in each one.  Then see if what ever controler you want to use will be the one you want.  I'm guessing that won't work, but is worth a try if you can.
     I would guess that you would have to hand wire a a 2 plug com port swtich box.   Just take that and a few PS2 extention cables and you won't have to cut the cables on your controllers.
BE WARNED!!! I believe there is power running to the controllers so be careful when wiring this up.  You could short out your PS2 controller port if anything is off in your wiring.

Hope this helps.

Drewman21

[Aidan]

If you're putting two controllers on the port, then you might well be able to get away with lifting the select line for the inactive pad and negating it. However, you should check if the outputs of the pad are open-collector, otherwise you can hit nasty problems with dead pads...

[NFG]

for a low-tech solution you could investigate a 9-pin switch and make some adaptors (or cut some cables) to connect your pads to it.  A serial-port switch might be exactly what you need.

For an even lower-tech solution run an extention cord to somewhere more accessible, like the coin door, where you can swap pads quickly and easily.

[espee]

thanks for all the input guys! just a few questions.

to drewman21 " I would guess that you would have to hand wire a a 2 plug com port swtich box. Just take that and a few PS2 extention cables and you won't have to cut the cables on your controllers." how do i do that? and what is a 2 plug com port switch box?

to lawrence "for a low-tech solution you could investigate a 9-pin switch and make some adaptors (or cut some cables) to connect your pads to it. A serial-port switch might be exactly what you need." same thing. how to do it and what is a 9-pin switch and a serial-port switch.

maybe you guys could point me to a website so i would have an idea what they are

[phreak97]

for aidans idea:
       LOOKING AT THE PLUG
�������������--------------------------
PIN 1->| o  o  o | o  o  o | o  o  o |
�������������\_______________/

Pin 6 is the select pin, and there is a possibility you could just wire a switch to choose which controller has its select pin connected to the playstation. however to test this out you may like to use cheap or old equipment which wont be missed if it dies, however i dont see that it should be a problem. i guess if trhat doesnt work you could try switching the clock pin (pin 7) because as far as im aware, without a clock the controller should just freeze and do nothing.
i take no responsibility for damaged equipment.

[espee]

thanks phreak! i'll try that out and let you know what happens. anyway do you know anything about those port switches the other guys were talking about?

[espee]

hi guys! i got it working now. i did what phreak said, which was aidan's idea. thanks for all the help!

[Aidan]

No problems. You see, many of those wires are actually in parallel inside the machine itself, and it's just the select line that tells the joypad that the PS2 is wanting to talk to it.

It might be a little bit more reliable if there's a resistor on the line to ensure that one of the controllers doesn't see a noise spike as a valid signal. On the other hand, there may already be one in the controller, so you might be able to get away with it!

[espee]

hi aidan! your right. i think there is a noise on the connection, cuz my analog pad is moving on its own! although not much but it still does. what type of resistor should i use? and in what line should i put it or should i do it on all of them?