NEs Controller to Rs232 port/USB

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:26 pm

Dark-Aries wrote:I wonder if theere are any PCI parallel cards...those would be good to have...

I know...I'm cheap...

I'm sure they exist but I wouldn't know where to look for them.

edit: of course, EBAY!

they're going pretty cheap. I saw one for $10, free shipping on there. (buy it now)

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:59 pm

Yeah, there are plenty of cheap PCI parallel port cards out there, but I didn't think you would want to do that since it would take up a lot of room...

Okay, so I just completed a parts list with Newark, and all the parts for the interface AND the programmer only came to $6.47... then I remembered about their $20.00 handling fee for orders under $100.

So, you get the idea, anyway. If you know how to shop for cheap parts, you can build this thing for a lot less than you'd think. Cheaper than a PCI parallel port card for sure. After all, the part count isn't that high, and most of them are passives, which are cheap. Either way you decide to go about it, you'll be able to do it for less than a $22 RetroUSB adapter.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:04 pm

Electric Rain wrote:Yeah, there are plenty of cheap PCI parallel port cards out there, but I didn't think you would want to do that since it would take up a lot of room...

Okay, so I just completed a parts list with Newark, and all the parts for the interface AND the programmer only came to $6.47... then I remembered about their $20.00 handling fee for orders under $100. So, you get the idea, anyway. If you know how to shop for cheap parts, you can build this thing for a lot less than you'd think. Cheaper than a PCI parallel port card for sure. After all, the part count isn't that high, and most of them are passives, which are cheap. Either way you decide to go about it, you'll be able to do it for less than a $22 RetroUSB adapter.

yeah, and preferably with more controllers. my parallel port adapter supports 5 SNES controllers.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:28 am

The USB adapter (the one I've been talking about) supports up to 4, which you'll probably never need more than. *shrug*

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:37 am

Electric Rain wrote:The USB adapter (the one I've been talking about) supports up to 4, which you'll probably never need more than. *shrug*

right, and the retro duo only supports 1, right?

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:29 am

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... &CatId=512

this is cheap, and looks pretty small...this would work right? It shuold work the exact same like a regular parallel correct? Would I even have to hook up the controllers to the extra power (usuallu people use 9 volts battery's, I'd use the psu), because it's on the pci port...wouldn't it drag all the power it needs?

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:34 am

Dark-Aries wrote:http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... &CatId=512

this is cheap, and looks pretty small...this would work right? It shuold work the exact same like a regular parallel correct? Would I even have to hook up the controllers to the extra power (usuallu people use 9 volts battery's, I'd use the psu), because it's on the pci port...wouldn't it drag all the power it needs?

There were some on Ebay for $15 less than that one.

as for power, that'll be drawn directly from the parallel port through the use of diodes.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:03 am

grossaffe wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:The USB adapter (the one I've been talking about) supports up to 4, which you'll probably never need more than. *shrug*
right, and the retro duo only supports 1, right?

...The Retro Duo is a console.

But, the RetroUSB only supports one, yes.

By the way, here's almost that exact same card for $17 cheaper. But actually, you'd be better off going the eBay route since you can get them for $10 shipped.

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:22 am

Ya..I might go the ebay route...I found some that are cheap and cheap shipping to canada....I might also check my local computer shop too....They make have a generic one for cheap...and no need to wait for shipping...

Thanks for all the help guys though...I appreciate it

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:25 pm

Hmm... Why go through all that trouble when you could disguise USB ports as the original NES controller ports?

You could pick up a cheap $10 USB controller at Target and transplant the chip. Keep the original cord on the controller. Then match up the correct wires on the console-side NES connector and hotwire it to the motherboard's USB headers. (Bonus points of you rig the controller up so you can switch between the original encoder and the USB encoder so it can work on a real NES as well.)

Plus, if you ever want to plug something else into it, you could make a "NES port USB to USB type A" adapter.

It just seems like a cheaper and more elegant solution than making a big parallel port mess.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:43 pm

I thought the parallel port card route would be quite messy as well, which is why I still strongly recommend the Atmega8 USB route...

Last I checked, Digikey charged a $10 handling fee for orders under $25... I checked yesterday, and I guess that's not in place anymore.

You all probably knew that, though... I guess I'm slow on the uptake.

Anyway, if you get your parts through Digikey, you can build the USB converter thing for probably around $15 with shipping... maybe less. DO THAT!!!

Edit: Assuming you have some wire and a bit of perf board, this is all you need. You don't need jumpers or headers for any of it; just use wire if you're as cheap as you say you are.

The following parts are for the interface AND the programmer, and everything is from Digikey... they're in somewhat of a mixed up order, but oh well.

Code: Select all

1  ATMEGA8L-8PU-ND     $3.66
1  CF1/41.5K5%RCT-ND   $0.03
2  CF1/4685%RCT-ND     $0.06
2  CF1/410K5%RCT-ND    $0.06
1  CF1/415K5%RCT-ND    $0.03
2  CF1/44.7K5%RCT-ND   $0.06
1  1N4148FS-ND         $0.04
1  BC549-ND            $0.21
2  1N751ACT-ND         $0.20
2  MAZ40360MFCT-ND     $0.66
1  631-1088-ND         $0.53
2  490-3703-ND         $0.60
1  493-1120-ND         $0.11
1  209FE-ND            $0.77

Total:                 $7.02

Edit 2: Oh crap... you're in Canada? Never mind, you're screwed then. Shipping's gonna kill you.

Ah, did all that work for nothing...

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:22 pm

Electric Rain wrote:
grossaffe wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:The USB adapter (the one I've been talking about) supports up to 4, which you'll probably never need more than. *shrug*
right, and the retro duo only supports 1, right?
...The Retro Duo is a console. But, the RetroUSB only supports one, yes.

By the way, here's almost that exact same card for $17 cheaper. But actually, you'd be better off going the eBay route since you can get them for $10 shipped.

oops, i've been browsing the NES/SNES subforums too much lately

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:04 am

Electric Rain wrote:I thought the parallel port card route would be quite messy as well, which is why I still strongly recommend the Atmega8 USB route...

Last I checked, Digikey charged a $10 handling fee for orders under $25... I checked yesterday, and I guess that's not in place anymore. You all probably knew that, though... I guess I'm slow on the uptake.

Anyway, if you get your parts through Digikey, you can build the USB converter thing for probably around $15 with shipping... maybe less. DO THAT!!!

Edit: Assuming you have some wire and a bit of perf board, this is all you need. You don't need jumpers or headers for any of it; just use wire if you're as cheap as you say you are. The following parts are for the interface AND the programmer, and everything is from Digikey... they're in somewhat of a mixed up order, but oh well.
Code: Select all
1  ATMEGA8L-8PU-ND     $3.66
1  CF1/41.5K5%RCT-ND   $0.03
2  CF1/4685%RCT-ND     $0.06
2  CF1/410K5%RCT-ND    $0.06
1  CF1/415K5%RCT-ND    $0.03
2  CF1/44.7K5%RCT-ND   $0.06
1  1N4148FS-ND         $0.04
1  BC549-ND            $0.21
2  1N751ACT-ND         $0.20
2  MAZ40360MFCT-ND     $0.66
1  631-1088-ND         $0.53
2  490-3703-ND         $0.60
1  493-1120-ND         $0.11
1  209FE-ND            $0.77

Total:                 $7.02
Edit 2: Oh crap... you're in Canada? Never mind, you're screwed then. Shipping's gonna kill you. Ah, did all that work for nothing...

Sadly yeah...

And the reason I'm not disguising the NES ports is because I don't want to mod my controllers...I have two more NESs and getting controllersa around here for cheap isn't the easiest thing ever....the people at the flea market are idiots and the used gameshop I go to (where I can get them for 2 bucks or for free...

) doesn't get them all the time....

And it just makes the cool factor so much higher

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:20 am

...I still think you should do my idea...

robinsonl · Post by **robinsonl** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:33 am

http://store.era-ele.com/hxsp2108d-usb- ... -p-75.html

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NEs Controller to Rs232 port/USB

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