1 Linux Joystick parport drivers v1.2 BETA 2 (c) 1998-1999 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz> 3 (c) 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de> 4 Sponsored by SuSE 5---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 70. Disclaimer 8~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 9 Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that 10it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can 11happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick 12and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem. 13 141. Intro 15~~~~~~~~ 16 The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not 17originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of 18that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel 19port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing 20both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for 21connecting such devices. 22 232. Devices supported 24~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 25 Many console and 8-bit coputer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The 26following subsections discuss usage of each. 27 282.1 NES and SNES 29~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 30 The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System 31gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to 32connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and 33165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate 34with them. 35 36 All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from 37the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES 38and/or SNES gamepads connected to the parallel port at once, the output 39lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available input lines 40is assigned to each gamepad. 41 42 This protocol is handled by the joy-console.c driver, so that's the one 43you'll use for NES and SNES gamepads. 44 45 The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power 46source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power 47for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through 48cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red 49wire is +5V). 50 51 If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from 52some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is 53needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other 54hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the 55port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work. 56 57(pin 9) -----> Power 58 59 Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel 60ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your 61case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel 62port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together. 63 64 Diodes 65(pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power 66 | 67(pin 8) ----|>|-------+ 68 | 69(pin 7) ----|>|-------+ 70 | 71 <and so on> : 72 | 73(pin 4) ----|>|-------+ 74 75 Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the 76pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground. 77 78(pin 18) -----> Ground 79 80 NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the 81serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port, 82respectively. 83 84(pin 2) -----> Clock 85(pin 3) -----> Latch 86 87 And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and 88each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are: 89 90(pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data 91(pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data 92(pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data 93(pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data 94(pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data 95 96 Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel 97port. 98 99 This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to 100the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there 101are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary 102connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon 103connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo 104A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is 105either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads 106also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course. 107 108Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads 109 110 +----> Power +-----------------------\ 111 | 7 | o o o o | x x o | 1 112 5 +---------+ 7 +-----------------------/ 113 | x x o \ | | | | | 114 | o o o o | | | | | +-> Ground 115 4 +------------+ 1 | | | +------------> Data 116 | | | | | | +---------------> Latch 117 | | | +-> Ground | +------------------> Clock 118 | | +----> Clock +---------------------> Power 119 | +-------> Latch 120 +----------> Data 121 122Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads 123 124 +---------> Clock +-----------------> Data 125 | +-------> Latch | +---> Ground 126 | | +-----> Data | | 127 | | | ___________________ 128 _____________ 8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1 129 5 \ x o o o x / 1 \ o x x o x x o / 130 \ x o x o / 15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9 131 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 | | | 132 | | | | +----> Clock 133 | +----> Power | +----------> Latch 134 +--------> Ground +----------------> Power 135 1362.2 Multisystem joysticks 137~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 138 In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard 139for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin 140connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without 141hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64, 142Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these 143joysticks are called "Multisystem". 144 145 Now their pinout: 146 147 +---------> Right 148 | +-------> Left 149 | | +-----> Down 150 | | | +---> Up 151 | | | | 152 _____________ 1535 \ x o o o o / 1 154 \ x o x o / 155 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 156 | | 157 | +----> Button 158 +--------> Ground 159 160 However, as time passed, extension to this standard developed, and these 161were not compatible with each other: 162 163 164 Atari 130, 800(XL/XE) MSX 165 166 +-----------> Power 167 +---------> Right | +---------> Right 168 | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left 169 | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down 170 | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up 171 | | | | | | | | | 172 _____________ _____________ 1735 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 174 \ x o o o / \ o o o o / 175 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 176 | | | | | | | 177 | | +----> Button | | | +----> Button 1 178 | +------> Power | | +------> Button 2 179 +--------> Ground | +--------> Output 3 180 +----------> Ground 181 182 Amstrad CPC Commodore C64 183 184 +-----------> Analog Y 185 +---------> Right | +---------> Right 186 | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left 187 | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down 188 | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up 189 | | | | | | | | | 190 _____________ _____________ 1915 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1 192 \ x o o o / \ o o o o / 193 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 194 | | | | | | | 195 | | +----> Button 1 | | | +----> Button 196 | +------> Button 2 | | +------> Power 197 +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground 198 +----------> Analog X 199 200 And there were many others. 201 2022.2.1 Multisystem joysticks using joy-db9.c 203~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 204 For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the joy-db9.c driver 205was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but 206the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything. 207 208 For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the 209parallel port like this: 210 211(pin 1) -----> Power 212(pin 18) -----> Ground 213 214(pin 2) -----> Up 215(pin 3) -----> Down 216(pin 4) -----> Left 217(pin 5) -----> Right 218(pin 6) -----> Button 1 219 220 However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it), 221you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup 222resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this: 223 224(pin 2) ------------+------> Up 225 Resistor | 226(pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+ 227 228 Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks / 229gamepads the pullups are not needed. 230 231 For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on 232the parallel port. 233 234(pin 7) -----> Button 2 235 236 And that's it. 237 238 On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with 239the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the joy-db9.c 240driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2) 241 2422.2.2 Multisystem joysticks using joy-console.c 243~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 244 For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or 245want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This 246is possible using the joy-console.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the 247above types, including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks. 248 249 However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at 250once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and 251not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your 252joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first 253if you want to use joy-console.c. 254 255 Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes, 256and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button 257the same as for joy-db9, however with the diodes inbetween. 258 259 Diodes 260(pin 2) -----|<|----> Up 261(pin 3) -----|<|----> Down 262(pin 4) -----|<|----> Left 263(pin 5) -----|<|----> Right 264(pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1 265 266 For two button sticks you also connect the other button. 267 268(pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2 269 270 And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in 271this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described 272for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin 273for each joystick. The power source is shared. 274 275Data ------------+-----> Ground 276 Resistor | 277Power --[10kOhm]--+ 278 279 And that's all, here we go! 280 2812.2.3 Multisystem joysticks using joy-turbografx.c 282~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 283 The TurboGraFX interface, designed by 284 285 Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de> 286 287 allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In 288Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. 289However, since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the 290joy-turbografx.c driver supports only one button per joystick. For more 291information on how to build the interface, see 292 293 http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html 294 2952.3 Sony Playstation 296~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 297 298 WARNING: PSX support is experimental, and at the moment doesn't seem to 299work for most people. If you like adventure, you can try yourself. 300 301 The PSX controller is supported by the joy-console.c. 302 303Pinout of the PSX controller (compatible with DirectPadPro): 304 305 +---------+---------+---------+ 3069 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel 307 \________|_________|________/ port pins 308 | | | | | | 309 | | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4) 310 | | | | +------------> Select --- (3) 311 | | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9) 312 | | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25) 313 | +-------------------------> Command --- (2) 314 +----------------------------> Data --- (10,11,12,13,15) one only... 315 316 You may have to add pull up/down resistors. Maybe your pad also won't like 317the 5V (PSX uses 3.7V). 318 319 Currently the driver supports only one psx pad per parallel port, and these 320controllers: 321 322 * Standard PSX Pad 323 * NegCon PSX Pad 324 * Analog PSX Pad (red mode) 325 * Analog PSX Pad (green mode) 326 3272.4 Sega 328~~~~~~~~ 329 All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button 330Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL 331logic, the only driver useable with them is the joy-db9.c driver. 332 3332.4.1 Sega Master System 334~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 335 The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button 336Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding 337parallel port pins, and the following schematic: 338 339 +-----------> Power 340 | +---------> Right 341 | | +-------> Left 342 | | | +-----> Down 343 | | | | +---> Up 344 | | | | | 345 _____________ 3465 \ o o o o o / 1 347 \ o o x o / 348 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 349 | | | 350 | | +----> Button 1 351 | +--------> Ground 352 +----------> Button 2 353 3542.4.2 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive 355~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 356 The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension 357to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use 358the following schematic: 359 360 +-----------> Power 361 | +---------> Right 362 | | +-------> Left 363 | | | +-----> Down 364 | | | | +---> Up 365 | | | | | 366 _____________ 3675 \ o o o o o / 1 368 \ o o o o / 369 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 370 | | | | 371 | | | +----> Button 1 372 | | +------> Select 373 | +--------> Ground 374 +----------> Button 2 375 376 The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port. 377 378(pin 14) -----> Select 379 380 The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using joy-db9.c 381 3822.4.3 Sega Saturn 383~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 384 Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like 385Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still 386handled by the joy-db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything 387else. Use this schematic: 388 389 +-----------> Select 1 390 | +---------> Power 391 | | +-------> Up 392 | | | +-----> Down 393 | | | | +---> Ground 394 | | | | | 395 _____________ 3965 \ o o o o o / 1 397 \ o o o o / 398 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 399 | | | | 400 | | | +----> Select 2 401 | | +------> Right 402 | +--------> Left 403 +----------> Power 404 405 Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the 406parallel port. 407 408(pin 14) -----> Select 1 409(pin 16) -----> Select 2 410 411 The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for 412Multi joysticks using joy-db9.c 413 4143. The drivers 415~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 416 There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as 417described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads. 418Here are described their command lines: 419 4203.1 joy-console.c 421~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 422 Using joy-console.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel 423port. It uses the following kernel/module command line: 424 425 js_console=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5 426 427 Where 'port' is either the address of the parallel port the joystick/pad 428is connected to (eg. 0x378), or, if you are using the parport driver of 2.1+ 429Linux kernels, the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 430 431 And 'pad1' to 'pad5' are pad types connected to different data input pins 432(10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file. 433 434 The types are: 435 436 Type | Joystick/Pad 437 -------------------- 438 0 | None 439 1 | SNES pad 440 2 | NES pad 441 4 | Multisystem 1-button joystick 442 5 | Multisystem 2-button joystick 443 6 | Sony PSX controller 444 7 | N64 pad 445 8 | N64 pad with direction pad as buttons (DirectPadPro style) 446 447 The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed, so you must have 448your controller plugged in before initializing. 449 450 Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can 451use js_console_2 and js_console_3 as additional command line parameters for 452two more parallel ports. 453 454 Changes: 455 v0.1 : First version (SNES only) 456 v0.2 : X/Y directions were exchanged... 457 v0.3 : Adaptation for kernel 2.1 458 v0.4 : Adaptation for joystick-1.2.6 459 - added open/close callbacks 460 v0.5 : Renamed to "joy-console" because I have added 461 PSX controller support. 462 v0.6 : NES support 463 v0.7V : Added "multi system" support 464 v0.8 : Bugfixed PSX driver... 465 v0.9V : Changed multi system support 466 Added Multi2 support 467 Fixed parport handling 468 Cleaned up 469 v0.10 : Fixed PSX buttons 8 and 9 470 v0.11V: Switched to EXCL mode 471 Removed wakeup 472 v0.12V: Added N64 support 473 v0.13V: Updated N64 support 474 v0.14V: Fixed N64 axis/button counts 475 4763.2 joy-db9.c 477~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 478 Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the 479joy-db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line: 480 481 js_db9=port,type 482 483 Where 'port' is either the address of the parallel port the joystick/pad 484is connected to (eg. 0x378), or, if you are using the parport driver of 2.1+ 485Linux kernels, the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 486 487 Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If 488your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this. 489Old parallel ports may not have this feature. 490 491 'Type' is the type of joystick or pad attached: 492 493 Type | Joystick/Pad 494 -------------------- 495 0 | None 496 1 | Multisystem 1-button joystick 497 2 | Multisystem 2-button joystick 498 3 | Genesis pad (3+1 buttons) 499 5 | Genesis pad (5+1 buttons) 500 6 | Genesis pad (6+2 buttons) 501 7 | Saturn pad (8 buttons) 502 8 | Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) 503 9 | Two Multiststem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) 504 505 Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you 506can use js_db9_2 and js_db9_3 as additional command line parameters for two 507more joysticks/pads. 508 509 Changes: 510 v0.1 : First version 511 v0.2 : Changed kernel parameter format 512 v0.3V: Added Sega Saturn support 513 Fixed parport and PS/2 mode handling 514 Cleaned up 515 v0.4V: Switched to EXCL mode 516 Removed wakeup 517 v0.5V: Added 0.8.0.2 HW compatibility for Multi sticks 518 v0.6V: Better timing for Genesis 6 519 v0.7V: Added 0.8.0.2 second joystick support 520 5213.3 joy-turbografx.c 522~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 523 The joy-turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line: 524 525 js_tg=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7 526 527 Where 'port' is either the address of the parallel port the interface is 528connected to (eg. 0x378), or, if you are using the parport driver of 2.1+ 529Linux kernels, the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0). 530 531 'jsX' is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the 532interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1. 533 534 Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can 535use js_tg_2 and js_tg_3 as additional command line parameters for two more 536interfaces. 537 5383.4 PC parallel port pinout 539~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 540 .----------------------------------------. 541 At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 / 542 \ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 / 543 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 544 545 Pin | Name | Description 546 ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~ 547 1 | /STROBE | Strobe 548 2-9 | D0-D7 | Data Bit 0-7 549 10 | /ACK | Acknowledge 550 11 | BUSY | Busy 551 12 | PE | Paper End 552 13 | SELIN | Select In 553 14 | /AUTOFD | Autofeed 554 15 | /ERROR | Error 555 16 | /INIT | Initialize 556 17 | /SEL | Select 557 18-25 | GND | Signal Ground 558 5593.5 End 560~~~~~~~ 561 That's all, folks! Have fun! 562