Convert an Old Joystick Using a USB Joypad
August 20th, 2008 | by Joe |
Here is an idea for an older joystick such as a Atari Game Controller. You can use the internal circuit board from a Tremon USB 10-Button Joypad. The price for one of these controllers is relatively inexpensive being about 5 dollars.
Remove the original wires from the older joystick that went to the up, down, left, and right positions and fire button. The circuit card from the Tremon USB joystick will have the corresponding wires on its left joystick pad. The Tremon will have more buttons so you will chose one of them as the Atari Fire button.
Solder the wires in place from the new USB joystick controller card and mount it inside the older joystick’s case. The nice thing about using the Tremon USB controller is that it uses the Human Interface Device class of USB specifically the joystick device. This means no driver needed for windows, linux, or mac OSX. The MAME emulator program can then be used to map the corresponding buttons on the newly connected USB joystick.
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5 Responses to “Convert an Old Joystick Using a USB Joypad”
By Jake on Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
I have everything required to do this. But these instructions are so vague that it is impossible to follow. There are 6 wires in the Atari joystick and 4 in the Tremon. Thats just for starters. What wires exactly am I soldering to what board and where on the board? It says you can mount the USB circuit board inside the Atari case but the board is about an inch too long to fit. I wish I could find more detailed instructions. Can anyone help me? I would really appreciate it. I’m going crazy here.
By admin on Sep 17, 2008 | Reply
Sorry Jake I meant to include a link to this article. I am wondering that if the board is an inch too long to fit that there is maybe different versions of the Tremon controller.
As far as connecting up the wires on the Tremon, are there only 4 on the circuit board? How are the wires hooked up to the Joystick up, down, left, right to correspond to the Atari?
Best Regards and thanks for trying out the joystick project and letting me know this.
By Legacyengineer on Oct 18, 2008 | Reply
If its an Atari USB joystick you’re after, then have a look at this replica Classic USB joystick controller now available:
http://www.legacyengineer.com/store.html
Best part is, it is expandable, take a look at the inside shot of the PC board, 10 additional fire buttons at your disposal.
By darryl@bestpocketknife on Dec 31, 2009 | Reply
Hi!. Hey for the blog. I’ve been digging around looking some info on this topic, but i think i’m getting lost!. Google lead me here – good for you I hope! Keep up the good work. I will be popping back over in a few days to see if there is updated posts.
By Crumble on Apr 26, 2010 | Reply
Great video ! Thank you. We are all one family!