Idea

Jakq · Post by **Jakq** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:46 pm

I want to build two nesps, that have a switch and an ethernet port. the ethernet port will house the second controller and video and audio. Is it possible to do a slave/master idea here, where one set to slave has the audio and video and second player controller from the first unit?

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:23 pm

Quite possible. Research what Ben did for one of his Atari portables - he did much the same thing but used serial ports.

Just read through his articles about Atari portables until you come across it. It's not a "how to" but describes the idea pretty well.

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:30 pm

Absolutely.

However, you may need an extra connector (maybe a phone jack) to carry the A/V signals, since the NES uses 7 pins for its controller, unless you can find some kind of matching serial encoder and decoder set that can send all of the controller information over a single wire (or a pair of wires). Also remember that Cat-5 is unshielded, so don't use cables that are too long or you'll wind up with interference.

Jakq · Post by **Jakq** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:57 pm

It was my understanding that the actual nes controller only uses 5 of those pins, the other 2 are for light gun. I do not plan to have light gun support.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:10 am

Why you're absolutely right!

Sounds like you've thought this through. Hey now I wanna do this too...

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:29 am

Hate to say it, but you might need up to use more than 8 pins for this, unless you plan to have one portable be the host every time.

I did this with a couple Genesis portables and used a print port cable. Wasn't the best looking thing, but hey.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:12 am

You could just make two ports. It wouldn't take up much space at all. Just label one as master and the other slave.

Jakq · Post by **Jakq** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:56 pm

K. So here is a list of things i need to do.
1. learn to solder.
2. learn to solder better.

Oh, and, per say, if I were to solder the control to two places, one to the mainboard for player one, and the other to the ethernet port to act as player 2 for the other unit, all I would have to have the switch do is switch video and audio from main to input. genius!