gamepad pinout standards?

Gonzo · Post by **Gonzo** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:07 am

...if you were designing a general purpose gamepad PCB, would it be more useful to have all of the buttons available as seperate signals or as a serial output like the (S)NES controller's 4021 IC? is there a general standard as to how controller pinouts apply to "on a chip" systems? thanks for any advice!

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:37 am

What do you mean by a general gamepad? A USB controller or one for a console? In terms of "on the chip" controllers, like the NES, there is a logic chip which detects high or low. For the NES, one side of the button pad goes to ground, and the other goes through a resistor, then to the relevant button pin on the chip.

Gonzo · Post by **Gonzo** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 6:02 pm

Sorry, I mean like a 'universal' circuit board for a controller - one that could potentially be integrated into several different console projects. And was wondering what the most useful or common interface is between the two - seperate pins for each button, or combined as a serial signal? Do the 'NOAC' type devices interface directly with a NES controller's 4021 IC? or do the signals need to be seperated out anyway? Thanks for the reply, sorry for any confusion!

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 6:53 pm

id say serial is better, you cant really do analog joysticks very well otherwise, and the number of buttons is limited.

if you want to make this 'universal' you are probably short on luck, cause each console has its own different way of doing the serial data.