4 Player SNES Controller to USB Adapter

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:31 pm

I have build an 4 SNES Controller Adapter so that you can played emulated games with regular SNES game pads. With 4 controllers, it only cost me about $80.

Check Out:
http://www.thesingleone.com
Go into the "Home PC Arcade" Section

Digg:
http://digg.com/gadgets/4_player_SNES_to_USB_Adapter

declan · Post by **declan** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:41 am

hey thats cool. it reminds me of this project that some guy in canada built. he sell fully assembled and program PCBs. i don't mean to crush you spirits, but it cost me about $30 to biuld my 4SNES controller to usb adapter

EDIT: i built my addapter using the canadian guy's pcb

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:41 am

I used the Raphael's PCB board to make mine (http://www.raphnet.net).
What did you use to connect the PCB board to SNES controllers? The pre-built board cost me $23US, so what did you spend the other $7 on?

I am always looking for a cheaper way to do the project, he was the cheapest and easiest to build that I could find. It cost me about $45US to build the adapter.

declan · Post by **declan** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:26 am

T.S.O. wrote:what did you spend the other $7 on?

Two things: one, postage. two, the au doller to can dollar conversion bumped it up to $30 AU.
You can see pics of my addapter on this page of Raph's (i'm Declan Williams BTW)
I have updated my addapter to accept 4 SNES controllers. I first found a bulky 56K modem, then i ripped the gutts out of it, then i took one of my snes's (that had broken very recently) and got the controller ports out.
So my addapter consists of 2 "Home job" sockets and two real ones.
I also got a much longer USB cable, and i also got a 6 pin IDC connector and som wires and connected it to all the programming contacts on the PCB, just in case Raph ever updates the firmware.

I'll post pics if you're interested.

EDIT:
I've also built almost all of his (Raphaël Assénat's) nintendo controller addapters, and sent pics to him.

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:23 pm

Cool, that is what I thought, I could not figure out how you can build it so cheap unless you use old parts. I thought about how to make the connectors then I found the Multi tap, but I also wanted to at some point to mod the covers to make it look more professional.

I sent Raphael a link to my site on March 9th, but have not heard anything back yet. You can post picture if you want. At some point I will take another Multi tap and set it up to connect with Parallel Port. If I could find a good source to buy to NES or SNES connectors it make these projects a lot cheaper.

declan · Post by **declan** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:28 pm

Hey, using a multi taps isn't a bad idea at all. In fact it looks a hellova lot more profetional than mine!
I notice your PCB is the new revision of Raph's board, your's has the green solder mask, so you must have bought it in the last few months right?
Any way, i'll get some pics soon, bare with me.

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:36 am

Yes, I did used the newest one of Raph's board. If someone was making an NES MultiTap I would try that too.

Does the PCB you have components on the bottom like the current version does? Put pictures up when you can, no hurry.

declan · Post by **declan** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:03 am

T.S.O. wrote:Does the PCB you have components on the bottom like the current version does?

Yeh, it does, so it's not the very first version. The only componants are 0 ohm resistors, to select the MCU and output power.

Hope this works.....
EDIT:
also hope this does'nt fry any 56K'ers out ther

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:46 pm

Looks good, If I had done it with without the Multi tap, I doubt mine would have turned out that good. I would have had to make all 4 sockets by hand. That is the main reason I used the Multi tap, a lot less soldering.

I still do not completely understand how to upgrade the firmware. I know there are points to solder on the PCB, but how to do connect it to the computer to upgrade he firmware?

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:01 pm

Awesome stuff. even made it to work with USB. Schematics? Drivers?

declan · Post by **declan** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:00 pm

T.S.O. wrote:I still do not completely understand how to upgrade the firmware. I know there are points to solder on the PCB, but how to do connect it to the computer to upgrade he firmware?

You need an AVR programmer to load new firmware on to the microcontroller. I would recomend the "Mini STK500 USB Atmega AVR", 'cause its cheap (about $25 on the US ebay), its not a third party programmer (it's made by Atmel, so it's very reliable) and it supports fuse-bit and lock-bit programming, which many cheap serial programmers don't.

adventure_of_link wrote:Schematics? Drivers?:D

Schematic
No driver requierd!!
Firmware
And the project itself.

EDIT:
Don't use my Firmware link. Go to the main project page to get the firmware.

whicker · Post by **whicker** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:31 am

the zener to ground on both the USB's D+ and D- don't seem right.

Not saying that the USB designers didn't go out of their way to provide current limitation, and that the raphnet circuit doesn't technically work...

declan · Post by **declan** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:53 am

whicker wrote:the zener to ground on both the USB's D+ and D- don't seem right.

Maybe so, but in my understanding, Objective Development designed the driver to enable the AVR to comunicate with USB, as AVR's are normally incompadible with USB, and i assume (but don't know for sure) that the USB data lines use 3.6V for logic 1. the Driver, i assume, was talored accordingly.
Raphaël Assénat's program, simply "piggy-backs" of OD's driver, as do most of his AVR to USB projects
He used the driver to make the addapter cheaply, 'cause no USB comunication chip (e.g. USBN9602) was needed, which would have otherwise bumped the cost up higher, not to mention the size (of the PCB) factor.

rkeck0 · Post by **rkeck0** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:01 pm

If I were to buy a single SNES to USB controller adapter, then plug in the multicap, what's to stop that from working?

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:21 pm

I am assuming that you mean this adapter:
http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?productID=118

The site says:
Works with standard controllers,
does not work with peripherals (SuperScope, MultiTap, etc).

It will not work, as the adapter can only handle one data stream, the MultiTap has 5 data streams.

Its nice idea, but considering the cost, buy and re-wiring the MultiTap to support 4 or 5 controllers would cost about the same.

T.S.O. · Post by **T.S.O.** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:10 pm

I just finished converting a Super Nintendo controller to USB using the http://www.retrousb.com NES/SNES RetroKit.

My only problem is that SNES9x and zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) 1.5.1 do not map the B,Y,X buttons correctly. I thought I saw someone else have a similar problem with retrousb.com SNES adapter.

Any know which buttons should be used for retrousb.com?

kitsune_baka · Post by **kitsune_baka** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 8:05 pm

If only such a thing were cheaper, I'd consider getting one.
Sucks that SmartJoy didn't make a 2-player version of its
Snes to USB converter box, though I spose you can get
the same effect by getting one of those 4-way USB splits
and attaching the pre-USB'd snes gamepads sold on ebay.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:41 am

kitsune_baka wrote:If only such a thing were cheaper, I'd consider getting one.
Sucks that SmartJoy didn't make a 2-player version of its
Snes to USB converter box, though I spose you can get
the same effect by getting one of those 4-way USB splits
and attaching the pre-USB'd snes gamepads sold on ebay.

You could also get a USB hub and 4 SmartJoys.

kitsune_baka · Post by **kitsune_baka** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:58 pm

At 21 bucks per adapter + snes pads, thass be kinda 'spensive...

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:30 am

kitsune_baka wrote:At 21 bucks per adapter + snes pads, thass be kinda 'spensive...

I generally assume if you're buying adapters, you already HAVE controllers.

kitsune_baka · Post by **kitsune_baka** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:25 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
kitsune_baka wrote:At 21 bucks per adapter + snes pads, thass be kinda 'spensive...
I generally assume if you're buying adapters, you already HAVE controllers.

I haven't had an actual snes since 8th grade, I just play the emu's.
And I've already got a PS2-->USB adapter and two wireless pads.
Though it would be neat to use an old Turbo Touch 360 on Zsnes.

I_am_dumb · Post by **I_am_dumb** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:20 am

Could someone out there make something like this?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:00 am

Yes, someone could make it.

I_am_dumb · Post by **I_am_dumb** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 3:51 am

Another idea I had was perhaps to buy one of those cheap 2 player PSX to USB adapters from ebay (the knockoff models which are $4) and attempt to replace the PSX ports with SNES ports. The sizes of their respective ports are pretty close, and if not the openings on the housing could be modified, but would it be as simple as just re-soldering the connections?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:25 am

No, it would not be as simple as that.

ZSNES board

4 Player SNES Controller to USB Adapter

4 Player SNES Controller to USB Adapter

Simpler Way?

Added 1 player convert SNES controller.