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Analogue_Joystick
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1992-10-07
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5KB
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98 lines
UPDATE ON THE ANALOGUE JOYSTICK HACK
By Ron Mills
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In June 1991 I submitted two articles to you for inclusion in Megadisc.
Thank you for publishing them in MD 25. The second of the articles sug-
gesting a proposed hardware patch to allow the use of IBM type joysticks on
the Amiga although not 100% correct did not generate as much comment as I
had hoped - many thanks to R. Reynoldson for his suggestions in MD 26. It
would appear that everyone is quite happy to pay $30 or so for a commercial
version whereas a basic patch can be easily built for no more than $5.
Just to tidy things up I thought I would let you know of the final result
of my efforts. I got off on the wrong foot by looking up the joystick port
information in the Commodore manual "Introduction to AMIGA" on page 7-16
(reference) to get the pin outs. Certainly the information listed in
"Amazing Amiga Computing" July 1989 by David Kinzer corrected the problem
with the fire button connections. It was not until I borrowed another
IBM style joystick that I found out why I had to transpose the "X" & "Y"
potentiometer leads. Much to my satisfaction as I do not like loose ends
I discovered that the "Taiwanese" joystick that I had used for my tests was
wired incorrectly. This allowed me to rearrange the wiring in the patch
to make it work correctly. I have tried several different makes including
a "Gravis MK VI" without further problems and can now enjoy those flight
simulator programs that allow the option of analogue joysticks.
Here are the connections that work.
Purchase one 15 pin and one 9 pin female D sockets plus some stranded
hookup wire. (Cost varies between $2 and $5 depending on source) I used 5
dif- ferent colour wires to make the wiring simpler.
Solder wires between the D sockets as listed below taking care not to
bridge pins 7 & 8 on the 9 pin D socket as pin 8 has +5 volts on it.
15 Way Connector
(IBM)
9 Way Connector
(Amiga)
Pin no.
Pin No.
1 +5v....................................... 7
2 Fire 1.....................................3
3 Pot Y......................................9
4 Common ....................................8
5 Gnd (spare)
6 Pot X......................................5
7 Fire 2.....................................4
On the 15 pin connector, pins 2 and 7 may be commoned instead if two Fire
1 buttons are required and Pins 4 and 5 may be commoned if needed by some
joysticks for Fire 2.
Amiga Format misleads readers...
For your information I am bringing to your attention two attempts by the
U.K. magazine "AMIGA Format" to give its readers an IBM joystick patch
for use on the Amiga. Both of the ideas were from readers and were
published in two successive issues of AF but both including the correction
were incorrect. (AF 31 & AF 32). Each reader received software vouchers
worth 50 Pounds sterling for their efforts. As I was very much interested
I took the time to write to the magazine telling them of my experiences and
pointed out their errors as well as giving them the correct connections.
They did not bother to acknowledge my input nor make any mention or apology
in their Readers' Letters or Amiga Answers pages in the following 3 issues
that they had goofed with their attempted joystick patches.
Four months later the magazine published the corrected connections in the
July 1992 issue of AMIGA Format (No.36) using, I presume, one of their own
staff writers in a column on page 213 entitled "Indepth explanation No. 4:
Analogue Joystick" stating that this was the official way to wire a propor-
tional joystick on the Amiga. Well it was nice of them to finally give
their readers the correct instructions. I guess that you can't win them
all - maybe they had run out of 50 Pound sterling freebies. It would be
worthwhile for any person interested in making a patch to read their
article as it gives quite a lot of information as well as the schematic
diagram.
I will add a copy of my letter to AMIGA Format for you information. I
would appreciate it if you can find the space in one of your future MD
editions to publish the correct connections for those readers still
interested in making a cheap alternative patch to the commercial version as
it would clear my conscience for submitting a flawed version.
The two disk version of Megadisc is great. It is good to see so many
readers imputuing their ideas to be shared with the Amiga faithful.
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