SNES controller decoder

Mikey42 · Post by **Mikey42** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:05 am

I would like to know if anyone has done any work in decoding the SNES controller output. That is; to take the serial stream and use a SI/PO to decode it so that each button is separate, and can be interfaced more easily.

Also I would be interested in any schematics/circuit diagrams of SNES controllers. Is it the same chip in every model (I think it's the 4021 PI/SO)?

Post by **gannon** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:36 am

I've done it with both a PIC and with sipo registers, not hard. Don't have a schematic on hand for the discrete method though.
Any specific goals for having it read out in parallel?

Mikey42 · Post by **Mikey42** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:04 am

I basically just want to control GBA inputs using these signals

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:25 pm

Ah yes, I once looked into this as well... It was a long time ago; before I was a member of these forums I think. I inquired about it on the Electro-Tech-Online forums, and a friend of mine there sent me an old magazine article about decoding an NES controller's signal. SNES controllers aren't much different, so that article should be very helpful. Let me see if I can find it.

Edit: Ah, found it. Everything's done with shift registers 'n such, so there's no programming required...

Here: Mirrored on my server

Mikey42 · Post by **Mikey42** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:09 pm

Thanks! Very helpful. I guess needs only minor changes to work with SNES. like cascading to another SIPO or something

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:23 am

Mikey42 wrote:Thanks! Very helpful. I guess needs only minor changes to work with SNES. like cascading to another SIPO or something

Basically, yeah... I think that's all it needs.