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+ Linux Joystick parport drivers v2.0
+ (c) 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz>
+ (c) 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de>
+ Sponsored by SuSE
+ $Id: joystick-parport.txt,v 1.6 2001/09/25 09:31:32 vojtech Exp $
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+0. Disclaimer
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that
+it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can
+happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick
+and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem.
+
+1. Intro
+~~~~~~~~
+ The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not
+originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of
+that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel
+port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing
+both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for
+connecting such devices.
+
+2. Devices supported
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ Many console and 8-bit computer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The
+following subsections discuss usage of each.
+
+2.1 NES and SNES
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
+gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to
+connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and
+165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate
+with them.
+
+ All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from
+the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES
+and/or SNES gamepads connected to the parallel port at once, the output
+lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available input lines
+is assigned to each gamepad.
+
+ This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one
+you'll use for NES and SNES gamepads.
+
+ The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power
+source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power
+for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through
+cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red
+wire is +5V).
+
+ If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from
+some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is
+needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other
+hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the
+port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work.
+
+(pin 9) -----> Power
+
+ Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel
+ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your
+case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel
+port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together.
+
+ Diodes
+(pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power
+ |
+(pin 8) ----|>|-------+
+ |
+(pin 7) ----|>|-------+
+ |
+ <and so on> :
+ |
+(pin 4) ----|>|-------+
+
+ Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the
+pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground.
+
+(pin 18) -----> Ground
+
+ NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the
+serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port,
+respectively.
+
+(pin 2) -----> Clock
+(pin 3) -----> Latch
+
+ And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and
+each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are:
+
+(pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data
+(pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data
+(pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data
+(pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data
+(pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data
+
+ Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel
+port.
+
+ This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to
+the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there
+are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary
+connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon
+connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo
+A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is
+either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads
+also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course.
+
+Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads
+
+ +----> Power +-----------------------\
+ | 7 | o o o o | x x o | 1
+ 5 +---------+ 7 +-----------------------/
+ | x x o \ | | | | |
+ | o o o o | | | | | +-> Ground
+ 4 +------------+ 1 | | | +------------> Data
+ | | | | | | +---------------> Latch
+ | | | +-> Ground | +------------------> Clock
+ | | +----> Clock +---------------------> Power
+ | +-------> Latch
+ +----------> Data
+
+Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads
+
+ +---------> Clock +-----------------> Data
+ | +-------> Latch | +---> Ground
+ | | +-----> Data | |
+ | | | ___________________
+ _____________ 8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1
+ 5 \ x o o o x / 1 \ o x x o x x o /
+ \ x o x o / 15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 | | |
+ | | | | +----> Clock
+ | +----> Power | +----------> Latch
+ +--------> Ground +----------------> Power
+
+2.2 Multisystem joysticks
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard
+for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin
+connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without
+hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64,
+Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these
+joysticks are called "Multisystem".
+
+ Now their pinout:
+
+ +---------> Right
+ | +-------> Left
+ | | +-----> Down
+ | | | +---> Up
+ | | | |
+ _____________
+5 \ x o o o o / 1
+ \ x o x o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | |
+ | +----> Button
+ +--------> Ground
+
+ However, as time passed, extensions to this standard developed, and these
+were not compatible with each other:
+
+
+ Atari 130, 800/XL/XE MSX
+
+ +-----------> Power
+ +---------> Right | +---------> Right
+ | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left
+ | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up
+ | | | | | | | | |
+ _____________ _____________
+5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ x o o o / \ o o o o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | +----> Button | | | +----> Button 1
+ | +------> Power | | +------> Button 2
+ +--------> Ground | +--------> Output 3
+ +----------> Ground
+
+ Amstrad CPC Commodore C64
+
+ +-----------> Analog Y
+ +---------> Right | +---------> Right
+ | +-------> Left | | +-------> Left
+ | | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up
+ | | | | | | | | |
+ _____________ _____________
+5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ x o o o / \ o o o o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | +----> Button 1 | | | +----> Button
+ | +------> Button 2 | | +------> Power
+ +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground
+ +----------> Analog X
+
+ Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3 Amiga 1200
+
+ +-----------> Up +-----------> Button 3
+ | +---------> Fire | +---------> Right
+ | | | | +-------> Left
+ | | +-----> Ground | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | | | | | +---> Up
+ | | | | | | | |
+ _____________ _____________
+5 \ o o x o x / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ o o o o / \ o o o o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | | | | | | |
+ | | | +----> Right | | | +----> Button 1
+ | | +------> Left | | +------> Power
+ | +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground
+ +----------> Down +----------> Button 2
+
+ And there were many others.
+
+2.2.1 Multisystem joysticks using db9.c
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver
+was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but
+the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything.
+
+ For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the
+parallel port like this:
+
+(pin 1) -----> Power
+(pin 18) -----> Ground
+
+(pin 2) -----> Up
+(pin 3) -----> Down
+(pin 4) -----> Left
+(pin 5) -----> Right
+(pin 6) -----> Button 1
+
+ However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it),
+you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup
+resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this:
+
+(pin 2) ------------+------> Up
+ Resistor |
+(pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+
+
+ Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks /
+gamepads the pullups are not needed.
+
+ For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on
+the parallel port.
+
+(pin 7) -----> Button 2
+
+ And that's it.
+
+ On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with
+the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c
+driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2)
+
+2.2.2 Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or
+want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is
+possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types,
+including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks.
+
+ However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at
+once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and
+not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your
+joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first
+if you want to use gamecon.c.
+
+ Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes,
+and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button
+the same as for db9, however with the diodes inbetween.
+
+ Diodes
+(pin 2) -----|<|----> Up
+(pin 3) -----|<|----> Down
+(pin 4) -----|<|----> Left
+(pin 5) -----|<|----> Right
+(pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1
+
+ For two button sticks you also connect the other button.
+
+(pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2
+
+ And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in
+this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described
+for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin
+for each joystick. The power source is shared.
+
+Data ------------+-----> Ground
+ Resistor |
+Power --[10kOhm]--+
+
+ And that's all, here we go!
+
+2.2.3 Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ The TurboGraFX interface, designed by
+
+ Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de>
+
+ allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In
+Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. However,
+since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver
+supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the
+interface, see
+
+ http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html
+
+2.3 Sony Playstation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX
+controller (compatible with DirectPadPro):
+
+ +---------+---------+---------+
+9 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel
+ \________|_________|________/ port pins
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4)
+ | | | | +------------> Select --- (3)
+ | | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9)
+ | | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25)
+ | +-------------------------> Command --- (2)
+ +----------------------------> Data --- (one of 10,11,12,13,15)
+
+ The driver supports these controllers:
+
+ * Standard PSX Pad
+ * NegCon PSX Pad
+ * Analog PSX Pad (red mode)
+ * Analog PSX Pad (green mode)
+ * PSX Rumble Pad
+ * PSX DDR Pad
+
+2.4 Sega
+~~~~~~~~
+ All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button
+Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL
+logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver.
+
+2.4.1 Sega Master System
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button
+Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding
+parallel port pins, and the following schematic:
+
+ +-----------> Power
+ | +---------> Right
+ | | +-------> Left
+ | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | | +---> Up
+ | | | | |
+ _____________
+5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ o o x o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | |
+ | | +----> Button 1
+ | +--------> Ground
+ +----------> Button 2
+
+2.4.2 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension
+to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use
+the following schematic:
+
+ +-----------> Power
+ | +---------> Right
+ | | +-------> Left
+ | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | | +---> Up
+ | | | | |
+ _____________
+5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ o o o o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | | |
+ | | | +----> Button 1
+ | | +------> Select
+ | +--------> Ground
+ +----------> Button 2
+
+ The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port.
+
+(pin 14) -----> Select
+
+ The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c
+
+2.4.3 Sega Saturn
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like
+Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still
+handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything
+else. Use this schematic:
+
+ +-----------> Select 1
+ | +---------> Power
+ | | +-------> Up
+ | | | +-----> Down
+ | | | | +---> Ground
+ | | | | |
+ _____________
+5 \ o o o o o / 1
+ \ o o o o /
+ 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
+ | | | |
+ | | | +----> Select 2
+ | | +------> Right
+ | +--------> Left
+ +----------> Power
+
+ Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the
+parallel port.
+
+(pin 14) -----> Select 1
+(pin 16) -----> Select 2
+
+ The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for
+Multi joysticks using db9.c
+
+3. The drivers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as
+described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads.
+Here are described their command lines:
+
+3.1 gamecon.c
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It
+uses the following kernel/module command line:
+
+ gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5
+
+ Where 'port' the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
+
+ And 'pad1' to 'pad5' are pad types connected to different data input pins
+(10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file.
+
+ The types are:
+
+ Type | Joystick/Pad
+ --------------------
+ 0 | None
+ 1 | SNES pad
+ 2 | NES pad
+ 4 | Multisystem 1-button joystick
+ 5 | Multisystem 2-button joystick
+ 6 | N64 pad
+ 7 | Sony PSX controller
+ 8 | Sony PSX DDR controller
+
+ The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used so
+hot swapping should work (but is not recomended).
+
+ Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use
+gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two
+more parallel ports.
+
+ There are two options specific to PSX driver portion. gamecon.psx_delay sets
+the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should
+work but you can try lowering it for better performace. If your pads don't
+respond try raising it untill they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the
+driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are
+registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes.
+
+3.2 db9.c
+~~~~~~~~~
+ Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the
+db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line:
+
+ db9.dev=port,type
+
+ Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
+
+ Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If
+your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this.
+Old parallel ports may not have this feature.
+
+ 'Type' is the type of joystick or pad attached:
+
+ Type | Joystick/Pad
+ --------------------
+ 0 | None
+ 1 | Multisystem 1-button joystick
+ 2 | Multisystem 2-button joystick
+ 3 | Genesis pad (3+1 buttons)
+ 5 | Genesis pad (5+1 buttons)
+ 6 | Genesis pad (6+2 buttons)
+ 7 | Saturn pad (8 buttons)
+ 8 | Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
+ 9 | Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
+ 10 | Amiga CD32 pad
+
+ Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you
+can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two
+more joysticks/pads.
+
+3.3 turbografx.c
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line:
+
+ turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7
+
+ Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
+
+ 'jsX' is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the
+interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1.
+
+ Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can
+use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters
+for two more interfaces.
+
+3.4 PC parallel port pinout
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ .----------------------------------------.
+ At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 /
+ \ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 /
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ Pin | Name | Description
+ ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~
+ 1 | /STROBE | Strobe
+ 2-9 | D0-D7 | Data Bit 0-7
+ 10 | /ACK | Acknowledge
+ 11 | BUSY | Busy
+ 12 | PE | Paper End
+ 13 | SELIN | Select In
+ 14 | /AUTOFD | Autofeed
+ 15 | /ERROR | Error
+ 16 | /INIT | Initialize
+ 17 | /SEL | Select
+ 18-25 | GND | Signal Ground
+
+3.5 End
+~~~~~~~
+ That's all, folks! Have fun!