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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001 Linux Joystick parport drivers v2.0
2 (c) 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz>
3 (c) 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de>
4 Sponsored by SuSE
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07005----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 computer 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
Raphael Assenatb157d552006-04-02 00:10:05 -050038and/or SNES gamepads and/or SNES mice connected to the parallel port at once,
39the output lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available
40input lines is assigned to each gamepad.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070041
42 This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one
Raphael Assenatb157d552006-04-02 00:10:05 -050043you'll use for NES, SNES gamepads and SNES mice.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070044
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
Raphael Assenatb157d552006-04-02 00:10:05 -0500108Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads and mice
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700109
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, extensions 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 Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3 Amiga 1200
201
202 +-----------> Up +-----------> Button 3
203 | +---------> Fire | +---------> Right
204 | | | | +-------> Left
205 | | +-----> Ground | | | +-----> Down
206 | | | | | | | +---> Up
207 | | | | | | | |
208 _____________ _____________
2095 \ o o x o x / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
210 \ o o o o / \ o o o o /
211 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
212 | | | | | | | |
213 | | | +----> Right | | | +----> Button 1
214 | | +------> Left | | +------> Power
215 | +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground
216 +----------> Down +----------> Button 2
217
218 And there were many others.
219
2202.2.1 Multisystem joysticks using db9.c
221~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
222 For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver
223was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but
224the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything.
225
226 For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the
227parallel port like this:
228
229(pin 1) -----> Power
230(pin 18) -----> Ground
231
232(pin 2) -----> Up
233(pin 3) -----> Down
234(pin 4) -----> Left
235(pin 5) -----> Right
236(pin 6) -----> Button 1
237
238 However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it),
239you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup
240resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this:
241
242(pin 2) ------------+------> Up
243 Resistor |
244(pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+
245
246 Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks /
247gamepads the pullups are not needed.
248
249 For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on
250the parallel port.
251
252(pin 7) -----> Button 2
253
254 And that's it.
255
256 On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with
257the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c
258driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2)
259
2602.2.2 Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c
261~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
262 For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or
263want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is
264possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types,
265including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks.
266
267 However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at
268once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and
269not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your
270joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first
271if you want to use gamecon.c.
272
273 Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes,
274and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button
275the same as for db9, however with the diodes inbetween.
276
277 Diodes
278(pin 2) -----|<|----> Up
279(pin 3) -----|<|----> Down
280(pin 4) -----|<|----> Left
281(pin 5) -----|<|----> Right
282(pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1
283
284 For two button sticks you also connect the other button.
285
286(pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2
287
288 And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in
289this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described
290for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin
291for each joystick. The power source is shared.
292
293Data ------------+-----> Ground
294 Resistor |
295Power --[10kOhm]--+
296
297 And that's all, here we go!
298
2992.2.3 Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c
300~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
301 The TurboGraFX interface, designed by
302
303 Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de>
304
305 allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In
306Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. However,
307since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver
308supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the
309interface, see
310
311 http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html
312
3132.3 Sony Playstation
314~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
315
316 The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX
317controller (compatible with DirectPadPro):
318
319 +---------+---------+---------+
3209 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel
321 \________|_________|________/ port pins
322 | | | | | |
323 | | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4)
324 | | | | +------------> Select --- (3)
325 | | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9)
326 | | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25)
327 | +-------------------------> Command --- (2)
328 +----------------------------> Data --- (one of 10,11,12,13,15)
329
330 The driver supports these controllers:
331
332 * Standard PSX Pad
333 * NegCon PSX Pad
334 * Analog PSX Pad (red mode)
335 * Analog PSX Pad (green mode)
336 * PSX Rumble Pad
337 * PSX DDR Pad
338
3392.4 Sega
340~~~~~~~~
341 All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button
342Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL
343logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver.
344
3452.4.1 Sega Master System
346~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
347 The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button
348Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding
349parallel port pins, and the following schematic:
350
351 +-----------> Power
352 | +---------> Right
353 | | +-------> Left
354 | | | +-----> Down
355 | | | | +---> Up
356 | | | | |
357 _____________
3585 \ o o o o o / 1
359 \ o o x o /
360 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
361 | | |
362 | | +----> Button 1
363 | +--------> Ground
364 +----------> Button 2
365
3662.4.2 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive
367~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
368 The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension
369to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use
370the following schematic:
371
372 +-----------> Power
373 | +---------> Right
374 | | +-------> Left
375 | | | +-----> Down
376 | | | | +---> Up
377 | | | | |
378 _____________
3795 \ o o o o o / 1
380 \ o o o o /
381 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
382 | | | |
383 | | | +----> Button 1
384 | | +------> Select
385 | +--------> Ground
386 +----------> Button 2
387
388 The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port.
389
390(pin 14) -----> Select
391
392 The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c
393
3942.4.3 Sega Saturn
395~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
396 Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like
397Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still
398handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything
399else. Use this schematic:
400
401 +-----------> Select 1
402 | +---------> Power
403 | | +-------> Up
404 | | | +-----> Down
405 | | | | +---> Ground
406 | | | | |
407 _____________
4085 \ o o o o o / 1
409 \ o o o o /
410 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
411 | | | |
412 | | | +----> Select 2
413 | | +------> Right
414 | +--------> Left
415 +----------> Power
416
417 Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the
418parallel port.
419
420(pin 14) -----> Select 1
421(pin 16) -----> Select 2
422
423 The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for
424Multi joysticks using db9.c
425
4263. The drivers
427~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
428 There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as
429described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads.
430Here are described their command lines:
431
4323.1 gamecon.c
433~~~~~~~~~~~~~
434 Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It
435uses the following kernel/module command line:
436
437 gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5
438
439 Where 'port' the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
440
441 And 'pad1' to 'pad5' are pad types connected to different data input pins
442(10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file.
443
444 The types are:
445
446 Type | Joystick/Pad
447 --------------------
448 0 | None
449 1 | SNES pad
450 2 | NES pad
451 4 | Multisystem 1-button joystick
452 5 | Multisystem 2-button joystick
453 6 | N64 pad
454 7 | Sony PSX controller
455 8 | Sony PSX DDR controller
Raphael Assenatb157d552006-04-02 00:10:05 -0500456 9 | SNES mouse
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700457
Matt LaPlanted6bc8ac2006-10-03 22:54:15 +0200458 The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used, so
459hot swapping should work (but is not recommended).
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700460
461 Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use
462gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two
463more parallel ports.
464
465 There are two options specific to PSX driver portion. gamecon.psx_delay sets
466the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should
Matt LaPlante992caac2006-10-03 22:52:05 +0200467work but you can try lowering it for better performance. If your pads don't
468respond try raising it until they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700469driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are
470registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes.
471
4723.2 db9.c
473~~~~~~~~~
474 Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the
475db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line:
476
477 db9.dev=port,type
478
479 Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
480
481 Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If
482your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this.
483Old parallel ports may not have this feature.
484
485 'Type' is the type of joystick or pad attached:
486
487 Type | Joystick/Pad
488 --------------------
489 0 | None
490 1 | Multisystem 1-button joystick
491 2 | Multisystem 2-button joystick
492 3 | Genesis pad (3+1 buttons)
493 5 | Genesis pad (5+1 buttons)
494 6 | Genesis pad (6+2 buttons)
495 7 | Saturn pad (8 buttons)
496 8 | Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
497 9 | Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
498 10 | Amiga CD32 pad
499
500 Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you
501can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two
502more joysticks/pads.
503
5043.3 turbografx.c
505~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
506 The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line:
507
508 turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7
509
510 Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
511
512 'jsX' is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the
513interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1.
514
515 Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can
516use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters
517for two more interfaces.
518
5193.4 PC parallel port pinout
520~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
521 .----------------------------------------.
522 At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 /
523 \ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 /
524 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
525
526 Pin | Name | Description
527 ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~
528 1 | /STROBE | Strobe
529 2-9 | D0-D7 | Data Bit 0-7
530 10 | /ACK | Acknowledge
531 11 | BUSY | Busy
532 12 | PE | Paper End
533 13 | SELIN | Select In
534 14 | /AUTOFD | Autofeed
535 15 | /ERROR | Error
536 16 | /INIT | Initialize
537 17 | /SEL | Select
538 18-25 | GND | Signal Ground
539
5403.5 End
541~~~~~~~
542 That's all, folks! Have fun!