CD32 Amiga wireless gamepad

dlannan

New member
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Posts
8
Country
Australia
Region
South Australia
Hi, Im new to AmiBay, but a long time Amiga coder, gamer and now collector (I guess).

I wanted to be able to use my CD32 Amiga, but I didnt like using the original controller - its uncomfortable and the cables are annoying.
I read around the forums here and elsewhere and couldnt really find much on wireless controllers for the CD32. I knew you could convert a Sega controller to an Amiga 2 button controller (I did the simple swap pins 5 and 7) and that worked for a while, but it wasnt ideal.
The thought was, to take a wireless Sega controller and just swap the pins. In theory it should be the same. And viola, it is.

I bought one of these:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...exp_id=c1e79853-80bc-45f3-8ca8-f8bfd1e9461f-2


wireless-gamepad.png
And did a quick hack on the pins to get it working.

wireless-gamepad2.jpgwireless-gamepad3.jpg

I drilled two small holes next to the mounting holes so I could feed two wires to swap the pins.
The pins themselves I cut the backs off (not too much) and desoldered and removed the trimmed 'bits'. I also bent up the back of the detached pins a little so there was a noticable gap between the pad and the pin.
I really needed to use a smaller soldering iron tip and need to get back into practice of using a soldering iron (has been a decade or more).
So I apologize for the messy effort :)

I signed up to share this, hoping that others may find it useful. I'll be building my second one in a week or so which will make some of the multiplayer games great fun.

Notes:
- Dont heat the pins too much, you might dislodge them.
- There is a mini-usb plug on the board, which I think might allow accessing and programming the chip - will investigate. If so, then this may be able to be more than a 2 button CD32 gamepad
- Suggest using fine single insulated copper wire. I didnt, and it makes everything bigger and a little messier.
- For pin references see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_joystick_port

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dave
 
Cool!!

I tried it with a combination of Rys Mkii, 8bitdo usb wireless adapter and 8bitdo controller, but the mapping was off and contacting the guys from the Rys did not fix it.

So if with this Sega adapter, full CD32 controller support will be possible, I'm very interested in making them as well.
 
Was it much effort to open up and get into the dongle??

Edit: Might be easier to make a simple 9 pin to 9 pin cable... and cross wires 5 and 7 when soldering it up. Would mean the dongle would not have to be opened, pin swap would be done on the 9 pin plugs, and using a nice shroud (cover) would cover up the soldering.


How does the dongle and game pad sync together (pair), is there a button to push on the game pad and the dongle?
 
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Hi

Great, just ordered those pads and got D Sub Adapter Male 9 Way D-Sub to Female 9 Way D-Sub from RS component to save me any soldering!

RS Stock No.: 382-2724

Regards

Barry
 
Hi timmie, You could use extension, but then you'd need to modify the cable anyway which is far more work than two pins :)
The dongle has two small screws, its very easy to access and open. As I mentioned, just drill a couple of holes next to the other holes.
It ends up looking fine and the controller uses the "start" button to sync - its very quick.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Barry,
Just make sure you swap pins 5 and 7 respectively. You may have problems and even possibly damage your CD32 if you dont swap them. Pin 7 is power on the CD32 which will go to the Sega pin 7 which is Select Out and depending on how the controller is setup, may fry the controller or feedback through other circuitry.
Examine the wiki I linked if you have any issues.
Cheers,
Dave
 
Well, I have purchased one. Should be with me next week (shipping takes time to get to me in West Australia)

I'll probably make up a 9 pin adapter, easy enough to do.
 
Hi timmie, You could use extension, but then you'd need to modify the cable anyway which is far more work than two pins :)
The dongle has two small screws, its very easy to access and open. As I mentioned, just drill a couple of holes next to the other holes.
It ends up looking fine and the controller uses the "start" button to sync - its very quick.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Barry,
Just make sure you swap pins 5 and 7 respectively. You may have problems and even possibly damage your CD32 if you dont swap them. Pin 7 is power on the CD32 which will go to the Sega pin 7 which is Select Out and depending on how the controller is setup, may fry the controller or feedback through other circuitry.
Examine the wiki I linked if you have any issues.
Cheers,
Dave

Hi Dave

Thanks a lot for pointing out this controller. I have now done the adaptor, very easy with the RS item and now it works just like a joystick on my A1200 and CD32.

Great stuff, cheers!

Regards

Barry
 

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My controller arrived today. I'll wire up the adapter tonight.
Feels like a nice unit, can't wait to play some games.
Looks a nice match with the Logitech wireless mouse on my CD32. Just need a PS2 wireless keyboard now...
 
Nice. I think its a very tidy device. I am doing my second one next week and I hope to have a bit of a look at the usb internal adaptor to see if it can be programmed - this would be ideal if the command signals could be added/changed to suit the CD32 extra buttons. I dont expect it will, but you never know.
 
Hi Barry,
Sorry I misunderstood how you were doing that! :)
No soldering is a nice way around it. And that adapter is pretty cool - might grab a couple myself.
Thanks for giving it a try. Will let you know if I manage to be able to get the full CD32 buttons working.
Cheers,
Dave
 
Ok, where do I start.........

Gamepad arrived and I opened the 9 pin wireless adapter to see if it would be easy enough to cut pins and re-wire (as per the first post). It was a bit of a disaster. It wasn't easily done, it required a lot of heat and I wasn't happy with what I was doing to this little circuit board. So I stopped and went to work on making a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, crossing over pins 5 and 7.

I then realised that I had actually cut the wrong pin on the Gamepad's 9 pin wireless adapter, I desoldered pin 1 and not pin 5. My mistake, and I'll come back to this....

I made up a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, it took some time as I had to remove plastic coating on the tip of each wire, tin each wire, solder up each wire... it just took time. Once finished, I put it into a nice little metal case I had bought, and I then had a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, home made, with pins 5 and 7 swapped. I connected it up to the Amiga, loaded AmigaTestKit and tested the gamepad. It works! Except for UP. No UP. Why???

Remember I desoldered the wrong pin on the 9 pin wireless adapter? I actually desoldered pin 1 by error. That is for UP! I resoldered it.... but nothing. No UP. I think I have burnt a trace, or burnt out whatever pin 1 goes to on the circuit board. It's my own fault, too much heat, but my purchase was now useless.

Then I looked into it a bit more. I have a few HID2AMI adapters I bought from Lemaru here on Amibay. USB mouse / USB gamepad adapter. I looked up the list of compatible gamepads. Well I'll be the son of a monkey's uncle. The USB version of this gamepad is compatible with the HID2AMI !!!!!

I should have just bought the USB version. It would have just worked. No adapter to be made. No wires to be crossed over. No missing UP button :)
 
And the USB version isn't recognised by the HID2AMI.

Urghh.

I have sent emails to the person who updates the HID2AMI firmware, I have now sent HID descriptor information, and hopefully it can be added to the list of gamepads that work on the HID2AMI.

But this may be going off topic now...
 
Ok, where do I start.........

Gamepad arrived and I opened the 9 pin wireless adapter to see if it would be easy enough to cut pins and re-wire (as per the first post). It was a bit of a disaster. It wasn't easily done, it required a lot of heat and I wasn't happy with what I was doing to this little circuit board. So I stopped and went to work on making a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, crossing over pins 5 and 7.

I then realised that I had actually cut the wrong pin on the Gamepad's 9 pin wireless adapter, I desoldered pin 1 and not pin 5. My mistake, and I'll come back to this....

I made up a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, it took some time as I had to remove plastic coating on the tip of each wire, tin each wire, solder up each wire... it just took time. Once finished, I put it into a nice little metal case I had bought, and I then had a 9 pin to 9 pin adapter, home made, with pins 5 and 7 swapped. I connected it up to the Amiga, loaded AmigaTestKit and tested the gamepad. It works! Except for UP. No UP. Why???

Remember I desoldered the wrong pin on the 9 pin wireless adapter? I actually desoldered pin 1 by error. That is for UP! I resoldered it.... but nothing. No UP. I think I have burnt a trace, or burnt out whatever pin 1 goes to on the circuit board. It's my own fault, too much heat, but my purchase was now useless.

Then I looked into it a bit more. I have a few HID2AMI adapters I bought from Lemaru here on Amibay. USB mouse / USB gamepad adapter. I looked up the list of compatible gamepads. Well I'll be the son of a monkey's uncle. The USB version of this gamepad is compatible with the HID2AMI !!!!!

I should have just bought the USB version. It would have just worked. No adapter to be made. No wires to be crossed over. No missing UP button :)

Oh. wow. So sorry you had so many probs. Thats very painful.

Some tips on how I did the desoldering:
- I cut the pins first before desoldering so they wouldnt be a big heatsink - this is probably why you needed alot of heat.
- I used a "solder sucker" to pull off as much solder as possible before applying enough heat to remove the remaining bit.
Even if you desolder a wrong pin you should be able to get it working again. Just run a wire back to the pad.

The 'no soldering' solution Barry showed is probably the best if you dont want to pull this apart. Its quite neat actually - Thanks for that Barry.
I hope the USB one works out. That would be a nice way to go too.
Cheers,
Dave
 
Actually as a two button wireless controller it works great, I did the same as Barry and got a couple of those 9pin Dsub adapters, but I used some diode protection as shown in Rob Cs pinout below

https://i.imgur.com/Dy5DUO3.jpg
 
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Actually as a two button wireless controller it works great, I did the same as Barry and got a couple of those 9pin Dsub adapters, but I used some diode protection as shown in Rob Cs pinout below

https://i.imgur.com/Dy5DUO3.jpg


How did you get 2 buttons working? It seems for everyone else, only one (fire) button works... ?

Sorry for the confusion when I say two button I only mean the `Fire ` and `direction ` butons like a normal Joystick
 
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