Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

[Merlin]

Hi,

I am looking for some help with adapting a 15-pin PC analogue joystick to an Acorn Electron 15-pin joystick port. I understand that the Acorn pinout assignments were decided before the pinouts of the PC MIDI/joystick port were agreed, so although they share the same connector, they are incompatible; all of the required signals are there, but in the wrong sequence...

Is there a BBC Guru (Maybe TC) that can help me put together an adapter that can allow me to use a PC joystick (or possibly a joypad) on the Electron? I have the pinouts for the Electron and the PC pinouts are easily found, but the Plus 1 Interface manual for the Electron doesn't describe them in the same language as the PC port.

:help:

Thanks

 

[rkauer]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

Here is the PC game/MIDI port. But for the Acorn/BBC I just found a .PS document that I'm unable to transfer to Amiga now for proper reading.

Anyway, here goes the pinout from said document via Google HTML:

Pinout:

1 +5V
2 0V
3 0V
4 CH3
5 analogue ground 
6 0V
7 CH1
8 analogue ground
9 light pen strobe (not LPSTB)
10 digital switch input (I1)
11 voltage reference (VREF)
12 CH2
13 digital switch input (I0)
14 voltage reference (VREF)
15 CH0

 

[Merlin]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

@ rkauer

Here's what I got from the Electron Plus 1 Manual; it's not the same as your list....
[attachment=0:7364wwb2]Pinouts.jpg[/attachment:7364wwb2]

:?:

 

[rkauer]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

"My" list and yours are the same...

 

[Merlin]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

So why is pin 9 on the list I have not connected, then?

 

[rkauer]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

Because light pens are not shown up at the Electron time?

 

[Merlin]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

Because light pens are not shown up at the Electron time?

Maybe they weren't lit up; that's why they didn't show up..... :woot: :ROTFLOL2: :laugh: :jester:

 

[Harrison]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

huh? You could buy light pens for the BBC Micro and Electron. A guy living over the road from me at the time had a light pen for a BBC Master which I used to enjoy using.

It's strange to think that light pens and touch screens never really took off back then, but we are now seeing a huge interest in touch screens and stylus input devices. I suppose the difference is that lower power requirements and reduced size has shown that touch screen and stylus functionality are best suited to handheld devices such as PDAs and Smartphones, rather than sitting at a desk with a monitor.

 

[retro_junkie]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

I think he meant there were no light pens at the time that the Plus 1 manual was written (1984).

 

[Harrison]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

There were.. I remember using them at primary school, and I left there in 1985.

 

[Merlin]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

It's OK... MartinB at Stairway To Hell has kindly sorted me out with a set, what a nice chap he is...

 

[Harrison]

Re: Help: PC analogue joystick to BBC / Acorn adapter...??

That's good news.