The PlayStation Controller Port

2011 October 27
Data, Electronics

See also a previous post about game controller signaling.

A Serious Serial Protocol: Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2

  • Number of pins on connector: 9 (proprietary male)
  • Number of inputs to encode: 14 on the original gamepad (up, down, left, right, select, start, BT/”triangle”, BO/”circle”, BX/”cross”, BS/”square”, L1, L2, R1, R2), but arbitrarily more, including analog inputs
  • Mapping strategy: One pin for all inputs
  • Reading strategy: A fairly comprehensive full-duplex serial protocol, including provisions for acknowledgement and additional instructions sent by the system, similar to and probably compatible with SPI
  • Number of pins used: 8 = 3 power (1 ground, 1 logic supply of nominally 3.3V but possibly more[1], 1 rumble motor supply of nominally 9V but generally closer to 7[1]) + 2 data lines (1 CMD from system, 1 DAT from controller) + 3 signaling lines (1 ATT from system, 1 CLK from system, 1 ACK from controller). (Actual pin names vary.) One pin is left unconnected.
  • Fun fact: The same protocol (with different headers and commands) is also used for memory cards.

Sony’s system uses a serial protocol, as was the case with Nintendo, but the Sony version is somewhat more flexible—and quite a bit heavier. As described elsewhere, while it’s possible to implement this protocol using standard logic chips, it takes six of them just to implement the original controller[2]. This protocol very much assumes the presence of at least a microcontroller (which is okay—they’re pretty cheap, and replacing hardware with code often has some serious advantages).

Electrically, the controller ports form a bus. With the exception of the ATT line, all lines are shared among all nodes. The lines that are input into the system, ACK and DAT, are open-collector inputs (to put it one way, instead of “low” or “high” the line expects “low” or “nothing”), allowing them to be shared across devices. The system addresses one controller at a time by lowering the ATT line for that controller.[3] It would make sense for a controller to tri-state ACK and DAT whenever ATT is not low.

When ATT drops, a new session (or packet[1]) begins, and the system and controller prepare to exchange data 1 byte (where a byte is 8 bits in little-endian order) at a time. The controller outputs data on the DAT line and accepts input from the system on the CMD line. Both lines are clocked from CLK. The data lines are set up on a falling edge and read on a rising edge. After each 8 bits, the controller acknowledges receipt by pulling ACK low for a short time[4] The last byte of a session shouldn’t be ACKed; if the hardware tri-states when ATT is off then the ACK pulse wouldn’t be output anyway.

The number of bytes in the session depends on the content of the session itself. The system starts by clocking three bytes: 0x01 (start session), 0x42 (poll), and an idle byte (0xFF). At the same time, three bytes are received from the controller: an idle byte (0xFF), a 1-byte controller ID (such as 0x41 for the original gamepad), and then 0x5A (“here comes data”). (If the ACK is not received after any byte, the system considers the connection broken and moves on.)

The amount of data that comes afterward depends on the controller ID. A digital gamepad yields 2 data bytes (encoding 14 buttons in 16 bits), the classic analog is 6 bytes (the same as digital, plus L3 and R3 stick triggers and 8 bits each for LX, LY, RX, and RY), and, on the PS2 using DualShock 2, a whopping 18 bytes: 6 bytes as with the original analog, plus an 8-bit pressure level for each of the main 12 action buttons!

It’s also possible to send other commands to the controller. Among them is a sequence of commands that can be used to allow some of the idle bytes in the 0x42 command to be used as levels for the vibration motors.

(Sources: [1],[2])

  1. [1]http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/ps2/↩
  2. [2]http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/psxcont/psxcont.htm↩
  3. [3]ATT roughly corresponds with the NES latch line OUT 0, but is active-low and stays low for the duration of the session.↩
  4. [4]Sources conflict as to exactly when and for how long, but it’s on the order of one cycle width on CLK. The standard logic version mentioned before uses a missing pulse detector on the CLK line since it goes idle between bytes. It’s probably not too sensitive either way.↩

Thoughts: Machines I haven’t made (yet)

2011 October 21
Concept, Electronics

A hard truth that I think everyone who makes stuff has to come to terms with is that it’s basically impossible to do everything one wants to do within a lifetime. The proportion of imagination (the plans) to wherewithal (the means) has got to be at least exponential. (Perhaps that’s for the best.)

In other words, my time and resources have never really been able to keep up with my ideas. At any given time, unless I’m worn out or recuperating from something, I can expect to have several new ideas in the hopper before I’ve finished the one I’m already on. This doesn’t end well. Some of the time I can actually slog my way through to the end of what I’m working on, generally at the expense of the exciting new ideas. More frequently, however, I end up with another project at 30 to 50 percent completion. I think I inherited this from my dad. He was a very smart and inventive guy, and my childhood was practically littered with impressive projects started by him and then preempted by life.

Anyway, my angle here is that I have ideas that I like but am not currently working on. I offer a sampling [Edit: See Back Burner for an up-to-date version of this list.]:

  • Arcade-style dance machine. Summarily, a StepMania/DDR cabinet with custom input and output interfaces. This was my timesink around 3 or 4 years ago. I invented a special soft-touch sensor square that offers a bit of shock absorption and has LEDs embedded in the top of the panel. I created an RS-232 interface for animating LEDs. I was even working on convincing an 18F PIC to identify itself to a computer as a USB gamepad so I’d have something better to deliver than a hacked-apart controller. I bought a used TV for the purpose.
  • A solid-state dual AC switch/dimmer with opto-isolated microcontroller input. This would be more or less a twin solid-state relay (SSR) with dimming capabilities. It could be used to make a computer turn on the marquee light of an arcade machine or act as a speed controller for a rotary tool. This circuit could easily be built into an outlet box with a pair of sockets. An application note by Fairchild (AN3003, PDF warning) has as figure 9 a very basic SSR that seems suitable. I’d be making one of these per outlet.
  • A knockoff of a Griffin PowerMate that isn’t made out of a scroll wheel. Basically, a rotary encoder with a hand-sized cap attached.
  • A really big rotary encoder wheel. Actually, that was part of the DDR machine concept. I bought and dismantled a pair of rollerblades from Goodwill to harvest their bearings. Those are also still waiting for my attention.
  • A RepRap. But who doesn’t want one?
    • Not to mention all sorts of creative apparatus, including a 3D plotter, CNC mill, CNC vinyl cutter, on down to a UV station for photoresist boards, but these are far more likely to be bought than made.

And I’m confident that I’m capable of making all of these things and many, many more, but not necessarily in the same lifetime.

Fortunately, I’m not presently in despair about this; it’s merely an irritation. It’s frustrating to know from the get-go that whatever I’m starting isn’t likely to come to a meaningful conclusion.

On the other hand, someone of the mindset that it’s not the destination but the journey would call this a victory—a life that’s all journey and no destination. Sometimes I can see it this way, also. :-)

Whiteboard: Sega Genesis Controller

2011 October 19
Data, Electronics, Whiteboard

♫ SEEEEEEEEEGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! ♫

Ahem.

To complement my previous post, here is a schematic of the regular Sega Genesis controller. You could actually make one of these from scratch from non-specialty items; unlike the NES controller, which uses a proprietary 7-pin connector, Sega used the common-as-dirt DE-9 female D-sub connector, following in the footsteps of Atari both physically and electrically.

The circuit above could be built in fairly little time using almost exclusively items from RadioShack, if it’s well stocked. There’s probably still a DE-9 connector kicking around there. You’re not likely to find a 74HC157 in a local store, but it’s easy enough to make a 2-1 mux using 74HC00 quad NAND ICs. If you can’t track those down, it appears to be possible to make a non-inverting 2-1 mux in as few as 9 or so transistors (probably MOSFETs), but my personal recommendation, which is more time-intensive but overall less masochistic, is to have a working stock of a key few 74HC-series ICs available for when you get curious.

If I were to do it this way, I’d pull a couple of 74HC00 from my stash. A 2-1 mux—let’s call it MUX(M,N,S)—implements the expression MS OR N(NOT S); that is, “reflect M if S is high; reflect N if S is not high”. That’s equivalent to the expression (M NAND S) NAND (N NAND (S NAND 1)), which is four NAND gates. One 74HC00 = 4 NAND gates = 1 mux.

A 74HC157 packs four of these, but only two are genuinely in use. Most game software probably ignores the left and right signals while the select line is low, so it’s most likely okay to pass the left and right buttons directly out pins 3 and 4 of the port (as is already the case with up and down). As for the rest, pin 6 would be MUX(A button, B button, select) and pin 9 would be MUX(start button, C button, select).

Of course, as if it even bore mentioning, this controller would be a cinch to implement on an Arduino-like platform using just a DE-9 breakout cable. (Hint: Vcc on pin 5, ground on 8, an input on 6, and the rest are outputs.) Do this only on a temporary basis, though—you have better things to do with an Arduino. :-)

The Game Controller Port, Deconstructed

2011 October 18
Data, Electronics

A couple of weekends ago I found myself in conversation with Jon, my brother-in-law, a vintage game systems collector and proud owner of an Action 52 cartridge, about NES controllers—specifically, how all eight buttons can be crammed down only seven controller pins (a trivial setup would require nine). I just happened to know most of the mechanism already and gave him the surprisingly simple rundown. I got curious about the parts I didn’t know, so here’s a digest of my research.

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Rotary Encoders!

2011 October 14
Data, Electronics

Do you get a lot of use out of the scroll wheel on your mouse? How about that Griffin PowerMate you got for your birthday? If so, chances are that rotary encoders are responsible for some of the joy in your life.

15-period code wheel

A 15-period code wheel for a rotary encoder. Believe it or not, this hypnotic image is an important part of an analog-digital converter! Generated using the script at the end of this post.

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Cause for hope

2011 October 2
Build, Electronics, Tour

First of all, I got the demo USB peripheral running. The thing has a button and a light; software on a Windows PC can switch the light and read the button. Also, in a surprisingly unrelated fashion, I had a lovely experience at Fry’s yesterday that somehow made me optimistic on behalf of the casual hobbyist. I shall describe both forthwith.

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