Universal wireless controller for SNES, Saturn, N64, etc....

[ours1011]

Hi there !

I finally started a snes wireless controller. The microcontrollers were flashed a while ago.

The console doesn't receive the signal of the controller, but all the buttons are pressed. ( = low logic level ) see picture of test ROM.

           
      Normal view           wireless receiver plugged in

Is the receiver transmitting to the controller ?
Is the controller receiving ?
Is the controller emitting ?
Is the receiver receiving ?

I don't know ! 

Is there a way to find out what's (not) going on without an oscilloscope ? Can I verify if the controllers are flashed properly ? I remember I've checked that after flashing, but still ...

Anyway, there is a picture of my board in case someone sees some thing obviously wrong ^^' :



The left + and - are 5V that is coming from the console. The right + and - are on battery. Only the charging circuit is connected to both.

Also, when the receiver is plugged in, some parasites appear on the screen but it doesn't show up on the picture (if the controller is on or off).
The red LED is for charging and the green one for power. Sometimes the green LED is flickering when I power up the controller and then stabilizes.

[SnoopKatt]

Hi there !

I finally started a snes wireless controller. The microcontrollers were flashed a while ago.

The console doesn't receive the signal of the controller, but all the buttons are pressed. ( = low logic level ) see picture of test ROM.

           
      Normal view           wireless receiver plugged in

Is the receiver transmitting to the controller ?
Is the controller receiving ?
Is the controller emitting ?
Is the receiver receiving ?

I don't know ! 

Is there a way to find out what's (not) going on without an oscilloscope ? Can I verify if the controllers are flashed properly ? I remember I've checked that after flashing, but still ...

Anyway, there is a picture of my board in case someone sees some thing obviously wrong ^^' :



The left + and - are 5V that is coming from the console. The right + and - are on battery. Only the charging circuit is connected to both.

Also, when the receiver is plugged in, some parasites appear on the screen but it doesn't show up on the picture (if the controller is on or off).
The red LED is for charging and the green one for power. Sometimes the green LED is flickering when I power up the controller and then stabilizes.

You may have a bad voltage regulator on the receiver. I had that happen when I built the NES receiver. On page 5, I accidentally flipped the voltage regulator, so I fried the wireless transceiver. When I put in a new transceiver and put the voltage regulator the correct way, the same thing that's happening to you happened, probably because the voltage regulator got messed up from being backwards. I measured my voltages, and when that was happening, each voltage was something like .5V, so check your voltages and if they're weird, put in a new LP2950.

[ours1011]

Thanks, I'm going to check that.

Sorry I didn't realize that I could have the same problem as you, on page 5, I was subjugated with liverpool_hotline's work ^^

I'll keep you updated !

[micro]

@ours: Are you using a PAL SNES/controller?

[ours1011]

@ours: Are you using a PAL SNES/controller?

Yes indeed. Why ?

[micro]

Ok, then. On your receiver, please add a 10 kOhm between "VCC" and "P/S" (pin 4 and 20 on the Atmega8)
It seems on some PAL SNES consoles that pull-up resistor is required.

Let's hope this fixes your wireless controller, but there are still 100 other ways to fuck up ;P

[Silas2222]

Hey micro, I going to build one for my NES but this is the first thing I ever do with Microcontrollers or something like this. Where can I get a cheap Programmer, can this one works? --> http://www.ebay.de/itm/New-USB-ISP-Programmer-For-ATMEL-AVR-51-ATMega-ATTiny-/221128128589?pt=DE_Technik_Computerzubeh%C3%B6r_Kabel_Adapter&hash=item337c43784d

[micro]

It will probably work, but don't ask me HOW. Better read its manual

I got that one: http://shop.myavr.de/index.php?sp=article.sp.php&artID=200006

[Silas2222]

Ok, and what did you use for housing the NES receiver? Edit: I saw on the video, u used the same housing as for SNES usw. but you cant play together with this or?
And how I said, this is the first thing I ever do with programming and so on, so have I just to connect the USB Programmer in PC and the 6 or 10 pins like in the schematics and then I can burn the hex file with the program?

[micro]

The housing is made by TEKO, called TEKO10006 or something like that. The exact name should be on the last few pages of this thread because this question has already been asked.

but you cant play together with this or?

If you want to know if you can play NES with the SNES controller or play SNES with the NES controller, then the answer is yes.

And how I said, this is the first thing I ever do with programming and so on, so have I just to connect the USB Programmer in PC and the 6 or 10 pins like in the schematics and then I can burn the hex file with the program?

Yes, that's correct. But in my opinion building a wireless controller isn't a suitable beginner's project. Really, just read all the posts have a look at all the problems that people got with that mod...

[Packalti]

Hey,

I'm almost a little bit embarrassed to ask this but i dont want to screw it up 
I want to create a wireless n64-controller but in the pictures i couldnt identify which pins of the rumble pak are pin 14 and 15. Maybe the best help would be to tell me which pin number the one which is a little bit smaller has. 

[SnoopKatt]

Hey,

I'm almost a little bit embarrassed to ask this but i dont want to screw it up 
I want to create a wireless n64-controller but in the pictures i couldnt identify which pins of the rumble pak are pin 14 and 15. Maybe the best help would be to tell me which pin number the one which is a little bit smaller has. 

Check out pages 9 & 10 of the PDF in the zip file. If you look closely at the PCB, about a centimeter above the contacts on each side are numbers for the pins.

[cheema201]

You'll notice one side of the PCB that it'll have a little 1 over the first pin and a little 16 over the last pin (as SnoopKatt mentioned) So you have to cut the connection between the 3rd and 2nd last pins (it's pretty obvious which ones because they are bridged)

Good luck with it. It's certainly worth your effort to make the wireless n64 controller 

[SnoopKatt]

Quick question: on the NES controller, I noticed there's a 100nf cap on the ATTINY2313, as well as a 2.2uf cap on the output of the voltage regulator. Since the caps are in parallel, wouldn't the 100nf capacitor be unnecessary, since it's small compared to the 2.2uf capacitor?
Thanks!

[Fix_Metal]

Quick question: on the NES controller, I noticed there's a 100nf cap on the ATTINY2313, as well as a 2.2uf cap on the output of the voltage regulator. Since the caps are in parallel, wouldn't the 100nf capacitor be unnecessary, since it's small compared to the 2.2uf capacitor?
Thanks!

Nope.
Those are for filtering out spurious frequencies. Elecs mainly filter out low frequencies because of their high value (and therefore low impedance against low freqs). Ceramics are intended to filter out high frequencies because of their low value (and construction). 100nF is a tipical value out of the regulator. A rule of thumb says to use a 1/10 valued of the main elec out of the regulator. That said, if you've got 100uF on input, use 10uF on output.
Just another note regarding linear regulating: main filter cap value is critical for stable DC output, as it is the input voltage.

• Input voltage MUST be Vin-Vout > 3V
• Input filter cap must be C > 1/(f*4*radq(3)*Rout*Ripple)
• f = Main frequency (60Hz in US, 50Hz in EU, etc.)
• sqrt(3) is the square root of 3, ~1,79
• Rout = Vout/Iout
• Ripple = ripple you want (tipically 5 percent at least)
• The capacitance you get is in Farad. Multiply by 1000 for get it in uF

[SnoopKatt]

Thanks! Good to know. Hopefully I'll have the NES controller built soon...the wires are going to make a rat's nest haha.

[SnoopKatt]

NES controller is working!





Unfortunately, I botched the hole for the switch, as I drilled the hole too high. I ended up using a rotary tool to carve out the rest. Thanks a bunch micro for the schematic!

[cheema201]

Solid job on the nes controller!

Looks great

[SnoopKatt]

Thanks! I'm going to make another NES controller and I'll do a better job on the hole for the switch. Might also use a smaller DC jack for charging... 2.1mm is way overkill haha.

[Marmotta]

For some reason I just can't get my Saturn controller to work when I've wired it all up inside the shell.  I've got it to work many times when it's on a breadboard, but no luck.  Everything's receiving 3.3V (I'm using a slightly different voltage regulator). I thought the controller board, chip or wireless adapter might be faulty, but I've hooked them up to my breadboard and they all work fine.  I can't help but think it must be some oversight in my wiring, but I can't think what it could be, having tried desoldering and soldering with different wire a couple of times already...  If anyone has any ideas it would be great as I feel like I'm so close to completing it.



I did realise I needed to connect pin 11 on this pic:

[Marmotta]

Ignore that post - I found out the issue was with the capacitor between 10 and 20   Removed it from the chip and wired it up separately and everything works now...

[Packalti]

Still working on that n64 controller..
The Problem why I am not making any progress is that I haven't found a good way to desolder those damn small components on the board of the rumble pak 
Any advice how to easily remove those small things? 

[SnoopKatt]

It's a little hacky, but if you get a small flat head screwdriver, you can just scrape/pry them all off. Just watch your fingers!

[public-pervert]

Or just use some chip quik 

[micro]

Or just use a heat gun/hot air blower and blow all the stuff off the PCB 
The only thing that must remain undamaged on the PCB is a little fuse near the battery contacts.

[Grambo]

I've just recently discovered that when playing Secret of Evermore, my wireless controller causes the game to read the incorrect buttons. Left is right, A is start, Y is B... etc.

This happens both on the game cartridge and my Everdrive. So far, it's the only game I've come across that acts strangely. Can anyone else confirm this?

[micro]

I don't have a SNES controller/receiver with the "old" wireless mod anymore, but with the new version I'm working on at the moment I don't have problems.... (US SNES Mini console + US cart).

Is the problem present from the start or does this happen after playing for some time?

[Grambo]

Right off the start. If the problem were occurring, you wouldn't even be able to get past the title screen by pressing start.

[SnoopKatt]

Kind of a random question, but does Secret of Evermore work well with 3rd party controllers? I remember it being a pretty glitchy game (although awesome), and compatibility issues wouldn't surprise me. I don't have it anymore though, so I can't contribute much more :/

[micro]

@Grambo: If you got the possibility to re-flash your receiver then you could try out this .hex file: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dpwjx2jpgarrtli/SNES_RX_EVERMORE.hex

There's no guarantee that it will fix the issue. It's also possible that the receiver won't work at all 

[Grambo]

Cool, thanks I probably won't get to reprogramming it right away though.

[Gv288]

Hi guys,
great work you are doing here!
As from yesterday I ve been given my SNES back from a friend I had given it to (in 1995!)
I immediatly started looking for wireless controllers to plug in to my system, unfortunatly I can't find any.
I've seen the  ones from retrobit, but I read that they are laggy and have problems with the D-pad.

So here goes: can anyone here make 2 of these for me?
I'm willing to pay for this, of course

[mdn15]

Great Project Micro!  Is it possible to use the ATMega328p as a drop in replacement for the ATMega8.  I believe the fuses might be different, but I believe the pinout is the same.  If not, is there any chance of getting SNES RX firmware for a ATMega328p?

Thanks!

[Marmotta]

I'm trying to build charger circuits inside my controllers (and already managed to fry one MAX1811 ), but just wanted to know what the status of the LED on the charging circuit is at any given point (i.e. does it change depending on battery level).  I built a separate board to try and get the circuit working fine, as I was just making a mess inside the controller by just trying to add it to my existing circuit and hooked up a dead 1st Gen Shuffle battery up to it which it's sending 3.7V to, which I assume is correct.

Also, how long does a full charge take?  Would I be right in thinking that USB is 500ma, so it would take about 5 hours to charge the 2500ma iPod battery?

Thanks

[micro]

It depends on the configuration of the MAX1811.
http://www.maximintegrated.com/datasheet/index.mvp/id/2536

If you connected the SELI pin of MAX1811 to GND as I proposed, then the charging current will be 100 mA. The Ipod Shuffle battery has a capacity of 250 mAh. Normally you can't just divide the capacity by the charging current (250 mAh / 100 mA = 2.5 hours) to calculate the time it takes to charge battery. But this calculation will give you a rough value, so it should take about 2 to 3 hours to charge the battery.

According to the datasheet the LED will burn if the the battery voltage is between 2.5 V and the "battery regulation voltage" (in your case 4.1 V, if you have connected the SELV pin to GND).

[darktic]

Hi,

First of all, very Cool project ...

Okay, now to my problem....
I have build the snes controller, the receiver and the charging cable.
But I have a problem with the receiver.

When I plug in the receiver, it seems to press the R button and sometimes it presses the pause button ( may be select for specific games)

I tripple checked the wireing and i double checked and verified the program on the Atmega8 Pu. Everything semms to be correct.

What could be the problem?? Please Help, i was bulding this cool mod for my brother in law, and i am very pissed, because i can´t solve the proble of myself.

thx in advance

Jimmy

[darktic]

Ok, then. On your receiver, please add a 10 kOhm between "VCC" and "P/S" (pin 4 and 20 on the Atmega8)
It seems on some PAL SNES consoles that pull-up resistor is required.

Let's hope this fixes your wireless controller, but there are still 100 other ways to fuck up ;P

Could this solve my problem?

[micro]

Yes, if you got a PAL SNES, I'd give it a shot!

[REllU]

Hello!
I'm a new one here, and I don't speak English as my native language, so try to understand :p
I registered on these forums because of this thread. I have spent literally hours for searching how to make my nes controller a wireless one (I just recently found my old NES console, and tried it out, and oh boy! So much memories!) then I just got this idea, "is it possible to make the nes controller an wireless one?"

So, I found this thread, and thought "why not" (and btw, it is very awesome to see you, micro, still going on and answering to these messages!)
Like I said, I have been looking for some kind of instructions for this one, and all the links seem to be dead, or not what I have been searching for.

For now, I only have an original NES-004 controller, some electronic stuff (wires, switches, leds, and  not much more) and an old and broken nintendo DS, where I took the battery from. I was thinking if I could use the DS's battery for this project? It seems to be a little thicker than the apples one.

But what else I actually need for this? And is this hard to make, or costy? I found out it should cost around 50-60 $ with the apples battery and other stuff. And it is worth it?
For now, I don't really know what else to ask
Thank you for possible answers!

[abduct]

@Micro: Hey found this thread from youtube and I have a fairly simple question. I am in the process of putting together some N64 wireless controllers and I was wondering if it was possible to have the console side transceiver switch on a transistor/relay combo to power on the console when the controller syncs (or the console side transceiver wakes up from low power state). I don't have the hardware on hand because it is being shipped, but I assume this would be a fairly easy question to answer for someone who has worked with these chips.

I'm in the process of modding the N64 to be a completely wireless system, so if this question could be answered it would be appreciated. I was originally going to design a IR remote for powering the console on/off/reset, but if I can make these transceivers do it, then that will be one less component cluttering the project.

edit:: If possible, could you also upload the source code for the micro controllers. I would love to take a look at them and modify them myself for specific needs. Thanks!