Xbox 1 Controller Hack to Atari 5200

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 9:55 pm

Hello,

I currently use my Xbox 1 as an emulation box for various consoles such as NES, Genesis, TG-16, etc. I found the tutorial, linked below, detailing how to use a VGA cable to mod a "fat" Xbox controller as a bridge allowing you to use the original controllers with whatever emulator.

http://www.xerxes3rd.net/projects/Genes ... r_on_Xbox/

I ended up using a DB-16 cable because all the VGA cables I found now have 12 wires. That aside, using this method I was successfully able to convert an original NES pad, TG-16, 6-button Genesis, Super Advantage (sans the slowdown/turbo buttons), 7800 and 2600 joysticks. Many thanks go to xerxes3rd!

So, then my girlfriend gave me a Atari 5200 controller for Christmas....

After looking the controller over, I realized this would have to be addressed in a whole other way due to the analog nature of the 5200 joystick.

First, I will have to convert another Xbox controller as a bridge, but this time, I'll have to use a DB-26 cable (more wires) and solder the specific points of the left analog thumbstick's potentiometers in order to use the 5200 controller completely with the emulator on the Xbox.

After doing some Google research, I've discovered a few things.

1. Both the Xbox 1 and 5200 controllers use potentiometers.

2. The Xbox 1's potentiometer is probably a "100k linear pot" (This is according to a random forum post.)

3. "The resistance for each potentiometer in the 5200 controller ranges from 0 ohms to 500k ohms, with 250k ohms when the potentiometer is in the center" - from the book, Hardware Hacking

Now, I'm not an expert with potentiometers by any means, so I'm hoping some of you will have some advice for me before I move forward. Such as, will this work at all?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 3:19 am

pretty much every pot from a joystick nowadays is 100k.

The atari 5k2 is 500k, apparently. That might impose a bit of a problem. You could try to swap the joysticks pots with some 500k ones. Or you could try adding a 200k resistor at each end and see how well that works (probably won't work too well)

in it's current form, if you just swapped them, the joystick would always be registered as down left, no matter where you point it. (or up right?)

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:52 pm

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion. I picked up some resistors today at Radio Shack for 99 cents.

I'm going to try a direct connection first and see what happens. If it does always register a constant up, down, left, whatever signal, then I'll try adding the resistors.

If the resistors don't work, I'll look into replacing the 500k potentiometers in the 5200 controller itself with 100k ones to match the Xbox. I'll want to keep the 100k pots in the Xbox controllers since the 5200 controller will be pretty much piggy backing the signal of the Xbox's.

I'll probably be trying this Monday and I'll post my results. However, if anyone has any other experiences with a project such as this or wants to make a suggestions before I try, please feel free.

Thanks

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:08 am

Oh wait, you're trying to put a 5200 controller on an xbox and not vice versa, aren't you?

...Sorry, I misread your post then. (The title is kind of misleading) in that case you would need to lower the resistance instead of upping it. You can still do this with resistors, but probably higher ones. You'd need to put the resistors between the outer ends and the middle end of the pots (put them in parallel with the pots ends, pretty much, so that the overall resistance is lower)

But why would you want to use a 5200 controller on an xbox? they're terrible

Also, a dollar for a resistor is thievery

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:02 pm

Hello,

That's right, I'm trying to get a 5200 controller to work on the Xbox in order to use it with the 5200 emulator. I want the "5200 experience" to be as authentic as possible.

Can you be more specific in regards to how I should set up the resistors and exactly how strong (100k, 200k, etc) they should be? I'm new at this.

Thanks again for your help!

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:25 pm

basically, it's 500k right now, and you want it to go down to 100

let me draw you a diagram

boy that took longer than expected. Let's hope I didn't make any mistakes, but that should work.

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:55 pm

Wow, thank you for this!!

I have just have a few points that I would like clarification on:

1. I should solder both of the resistors to to the center prong of the pot, which would then link the two outer prongs to it? Here is a diagram of what I think your telling me to do:

Original pot:

---- === (outer prong)
- p -
- o - === (center prong)
- t -
- - === (outer prong)

Altered:

---- === (outer prong)
- p - --- 62.5k resistor
- o - === (center prong)
- t - --- 62.5k resistor
- - === (outer prong)

2. Where can I get 62.5k resistors?

3. If I can't get this specific resistor, can I solder multiple resistors together to create it, ie: 30k + 30k + 2k + .5k resistors?

Thanks again!

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:49 am

1. Yes. You connect the center lead with the outer leads with the resistor. That way the resistance of the pot and the resistor are in parallel, giving you 100k Ω
2. Probably nowhere. Something close enough should do
3. This is an even better alternative to using something close enough. Yes, you can do that. (just don't put them in parallel)

It seems 62kΩ resistors are available. These should work as well, but if they don't you'd have to combine them with 500 Ω resistors

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:27 am

Ok, I think these are my last two questions.

1. Does the wattage on the resistor matter? I was in Radio Shack yesterday and noticed that resistor wattage varies. (I'm new to this.)

2. I found these resistors online, since Radio Shack overcharges and doesn't have the 62k resistors anyway. Look ok to you?

http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/762337 ... b-62k.html

Thanks again for your help.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:15 am

1. No. You can use anything. 1/4 is usually used.
2. Yes. And yes, radio shack is overpriced.

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:03 am

Great!

I also ordered this from that store:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... =510QBK-ND

They didn't carry 500 Ω resistors, but this one was only a tad higher. I'm guessing it will be ok right?

Thanks again

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:33 am

yeah, that should work. 62k should work on it's own as well too, though.

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:40 am

Ok. I'll post again to let you know how it goes, probably Sunday.

Thanks again!

philexile · Post by **philexile** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:44 pm

Hello,

So I'm still waiting on those resistors!

In the meantime, I decided to take a crack at getting the keypad to work with the Xbox controller scheme I've been using. This is what I've come up with, using the diagram below as a guide:

You'll see that each button corresponds to two individual wires in the DB-15 cord from the 5200 controller. For example, the 6 key relates to Row 1 and Column 3 wires according to the diagram. What I did is take Row 1 and wire it to the digital "down" key and Column 3 to the digital "A" key on the Xbox controller. In the emulator I would then map the button combination of "down" and "A" to keypad 6. When I press 6 key on the 5200 controller it will send a signal to the down and A key on the Xbox controller simultaneously, thereby registering a keypad 6 push in the emulator.

Here is the guide I came up with for the buttons:

Keypad

1 - up + X
2 - up + Y
3 - up + A
4 - down + X
5 - down + Y
6 - down + A
7 - left + X
8 - left + Y
9 - left + A
* - right + X
0 - right + Y
# - right + A

start - up + B
pause - down + B
reset - left + B

top red side buttons - Right Trigger + Ground
bottom red side buttons - Left Trigger + Ground

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that since this is a keypad matrix, it doesn't include a ground wire to any of the keypad, start, pause or reset buttons. When I went to test this on the Xbox, only the red side buttons registered on the Xbox because they are grounded.

After thinking about this for a bit, I think I have an idea to make this work. However, being a new at this, I'm asking for advice before I proceed...

I want to keep the current wiring I've already done since it should work as long as each of the 10 wires (this is excluding the ground) are grounded. I was thinking that I could solder each of the 10 wires to the ground wire using diodes to direct the signal and avoid crosstalk. Below is an diagram I came up with for two different approaches.

In Option 1, each of the wires would be directly touching the ground. For Option 2, there would be 10 individual wires connecting each wire to the ground.

My two questions are:

1. Will either of these approaches work? If not, will anything?

2. If they will, what type of diodes should I get? (As I said before, I'm a novice.)

Thanks again for your time.