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Documentation / input / joystick-parport.txt


Based on kernel version 4.10.8. Page generated on 2017-04-01 14:43 EST.

1			    Linux Joystick parport drivers v2.0
2		       (c) 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz>
3		       (c) 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de>
4				     Sponsored by SuSE
5	----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6	
7	0. Disclaimer
8	~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9	  Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that
10	it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can
11	happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick
12	and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem.
13	
14	1. Intro
15	~~~~~~~~
16	  The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not
17	originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of
18	that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel
19	port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing
20	both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for
21	connecting such devices.
22	
23	2. Devices supported
24	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25	  Many console and 8-bit computer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The
26	following subsections discuss usage of each.
27	
28	2.1 NES and SNES
29	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
30	  The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
31	gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to
32	connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and
33	165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate
34	with them.
35	
36	  All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from
37	the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES
38	and/or SNES gamepads and/or SNES mice connected to the parallel port at once,
39	the output lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available
40	input lines is assigned to each gamepad.
41	
42	  This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one
43	you'll use for NES, SNES gamepads and SNES mice.
44	
45	  The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power
46	source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power
47	for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through
48	cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red
49	wire is +5V).
50	
51	  If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from
52	some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is
53	needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other
54	hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the
55	port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work.
56	
57	(pin 9) -----> Power
58	
59	  Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel
60	ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your
61	case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel
62	port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together.
63	
64		   Diodes
65	(pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power
66			      |
67	(pin 8) ----|>|-------+
68			      |
69	(pin 7) ----|>|-------+
70			      |
71	 <and so on>          :
72			      |
73	(pin 4) ----|>|-------+
74	
75	  Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the
76	pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground.
77	
78	(pin 18) -----> Ground
79	
80	  NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the
81	serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port,
82	respectively.
83	
84	(pin 2) -----> Clock
85	(pin 3) -----> Latch
86	
87	  And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and
88	each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are:
89	
90	(pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data
91	(pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data
92	(pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data
93	(pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data
94	(pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data
95	
96	  Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel
97	port.
98	
99	  This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to
100	the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there
101	are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary
102	connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon
103	connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo
104	A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is
105	either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads
106	also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course.
107	
108	Pinout for NES gamepads                 Pinout for SNES gamepads and mice
109	
110		   +----> Power                   +-----------------------\
111		   |                            7 | o  o  o  o |  x  x  o  | 1
112	 5 +---------+  7                         +-----------------------/
113	   | x  x  o   \                            |  |  |  |          |
114	   | o  o  o  o |                           |  |  |  |          +-> Ground
115	 4 +------------+ 1                         |  |  |  +------------> Data
116	     |  |  |  |                             |  |  +---------------> Latch
117	     |  |  |  +-> Ground                    |  +------------------> Clock
118	     |  |  +----> Clock                     +---------------------> Power
119	     |  +-------> Latch
120	     +----------> Data
121	
122	Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads     Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads
123	
124		+---------> Clock                    +-----------------> Data
125		| +-------> Latch                    |             +---> Ground
126		| | +-----> Data                     |             |
127		| | |                              ___________________
128	    _____________                        8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1
129	  5 \ x o o o x / 1                         \ o x x o x x o /
130	     \ x o x o /                          15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9
131	    9 `~~~~~~~' 6                             |     |     |
132		 |   |                                |     |     +----> Clock
133		 |   +----> Power                     |     +----------> Latch
134		 +--------> Ground                    +----------------> Power
135	
136	2.2 Multisystem joysticks
137	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
138	  In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard
139	for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin
140	connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without
141	hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64,
142	Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these
143	joysticks are called "Multisystem".
144	
145	  Now their pinout:
146	
147	      +---------> Right
148	      | +-------> Left
149	      | | +-----> Down
150	      | | | +---> Up
151	      | | | |
152	  _____________
153	5 \ x o o o o / 1
154	   \ x o x o /
155	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6
156	       |   |
157	       |   +----> Button
158	       +--------> Ground
159	
160	  However, as time passed, extensions to this standard developed, and these
161	were not compatible with each other:
162	
163	
164		Atari 130, 800/XL/XE		   MSX
165	
166						 +-----------> Power
167	      +---------> Right                  | +---------> Right
168	      | +-------> Left                   | | +-------> Left
169	      | | +-----> Down                   | | | +-----> Down
170	      | | | +---> Up                     | | | | +---> Up
171	      | | | |                            | | | | |
172	  _____________                        _____________
173	5 \ x o o o o / 1                    5 \ o o o o o / 1
174	   \ x o o o /                          \ o o o o /
175	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6                        9 `~~~~~~~' 6
176	       | | |                              | | | |
177	       | | +----> Button                  | | | +----> Button 1
178	       | +------> Power                   | | +------> Button 2
179	       +--------> Ground                  | +--------> Output 3
180						  +----------> Ground
181	
182		Amstrad CPC			   Commodore C64
183	
184						 +-----------> Analog Y
185	      +---------> Right                  | +---------> Right
186	      | +-------> Left                   | | +-------> Left
187	      | | +-----> Down                   | | | +-----> Down
188	      | | | +---> Up                     | | | | +---> Up
189	      | | | |                            | | | | |
190	  _____________                        _____________
191	5 \ x o o o o / 1                    5 \ o o o o o / 1
192	   \ x o o o /                          \ o o o o /
193	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6                        9 `~~~~~~~' 6
194	       | | |                              | | | |
195	       | | +----> Button 1                | | | +----> Button
196	       | +------> Button 2                | | +------> Power
197	       +--------> Ground                  | +--------> Ground
198						  +----------> Analog X
199	
200		Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3           Amiga 1200
201	                                     
202	    +-----------> Up                     +-----------> Button 3
203	    | +---------> Fire                   | +---------> Right
204	    | |                                  | | +-------> Left
205	    | |   +-----> Ground                 | | | +-----> Down
206	    | |   |                              | | | | +---> Up
207	    | |   |                              | | | | |
208	  _____________                        _____________
209	5 \ o o x o x / 1                    5 \ o o o o o / 1
210	   \ o o o o /                          \ o o o o /
211	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6                        9 `~~~~~~~' 6
212	     | | | |                              | | | |
213	     | | | +----> Right                   | | | +----> Button 1
214	     | | +------> Left                    | | +------> Power
215	     | +--------> Ground                  | +--------> Ground
216	     +----------> Down                    +----------> Button 2
217	
218	  And there were many others.
219	
220	2.2.1 Multisystem joysticks using db9.c
221	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
222	  For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver
223	was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but
224	the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything.
225	
226	  For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the
227	parallel port like this:
228	
229	(pin  1) -----> Power
230	(pin 18) -----> Ground
231	
232	(pin  2) -----> Up
233	(pin  3) -----> Down
234	(pin  4) -----> Left
235	(pin  5) -----> Right
236	(pin  6) -----> Button 1
237	
238	  However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it),
239	you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup
240	resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this:
241	
242	(pin 2) ------------+------> Up
243		  Resistor  |
244	(pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+
245	
246	  Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks /
247	gamepads the pullups are not needed.
248	
249	  For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on
250	the parallel port.
251	
252	(pin 7) -----> Button 2
253	
254	  And that's it.
255	
256	  On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with
257	the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c
258	driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2)
259	
260	2.2.2 Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c
261	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
262	  For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or
263	want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is
264	possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types,
265	including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks.
266	
267	  However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at
268	once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and
269	not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your
270	joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first
271	if you want to use gamecon.c.
272	
273	  Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes,
274	and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button
275	the same as for db9, however with the diodes between.
276	
277		    Diodes
278	(pin 2) -----|<|----> Up
279	(pin 3) -----|<|----> Down
280	(pin 4) -----|<|----> Left
281	(pin 5) -----|<|----> Right
282	(pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1
283	
284	  For two button sticks you also connect the other button.
285	
286	(pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2
287	
288	  And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in
289	this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described
290	for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin
291	for each joystick. The power source is shared.
292	
293	Data    ------------+-----> Ground
294		  Resistor  |
295	Power   --[10kOhm]--+
296	
297	  And that's all, here we go!
298	
299	2.2.3 Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c
300	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
301	  The TurboGraFX interface, designed by
302	
303		Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de>
304	
305	  allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In
306	Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick.  However,
307	since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver
308	supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the
309	interface, see
310	
311		http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html
312	
313	2.3 Sony Playstation
314	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
315	
316	  The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX
317	controller (compatible with DirectPadPro):
318	
319	  +---------+---------+---------+
320	9 | o  o  o | o  o  o | o  o  o | 1               parallel
321	   \________|_________|________/                  port pins
322	    |  |      |  |  |   |
323	    |  |      |  |  |   +-------->  Clock    ---  (4)
324	    |  |      |  |  +------------>  Select   ---  (3)
325	    |  |      |  +--------------->  Power    ---  (5-9)
326	    |  |      +------------------>  Ground   ---  (18-25)
327	    |  +------------------------->  Command  ---  (2)
328	    +---------------------------->  Data     ---  (one of 10,11,12,13,15)
329	
330	  The driver supports these controllers:
331	
332	 * Standard PSX Pad
333	 * NegCon PSX Pad
334	 * Analog PSX Pad (red mode)
335	 * Analog PSX Pad (green mode)
336	 * PSX Rumble Pad
337	 * PSX DDR Pad
338	
339	2.4 Sega
340	~~~~~~~~
341	  All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button
342	Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL
343	logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver.
344	
345	2.4.1 Sega Master System
346	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
347	  The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button
348	Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding
349	parallel port pins, and the following schematic:
350	
351	    +-----------> Power
352	    | +---------> Right
353	    | | +-------> Left
354	    | | | +-----> Down
355	    | | | | +---> Up
356	    | | | | |
357	  _____________
358	5 \ o o o o o / 1
359	   \ o o x o /
360	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6
361	     | |   |
362	     | |   +----> Button 1
363	     | +--------> Ground
364	     +----------> Button 2
365	
366	2.4.2 Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive
367	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
368	  The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension
369	to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1).  Use
370	the following schematic:
371	
372	    +-----------> Power
373	    | +---------> Right
374	    | | +-------> Left
375	    | | | +-----> Down
376	    | | | | +---> Up
377	    | | | | |
378	  _____________
379	5 \ o o o o o / 1
380	   \ o o o o /
381	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6
382	     | | | |
383	     | | | +----> Button 1
384	     | | +------> Select
385	     | +--------> Ground
386	     +----------> Button 2
387	
388	  The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port.
389	
390	(pin 14) -----> Select
391	
392	  The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c
393	
394	2.4.3 Sega Saturn
395	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
396	  Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like
397	Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still
398	handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything
399	else.  Use this schematic:
400	
401	    +-----------> Select 1
402	    | +---------> Power
403	    | | +-------> Up
404	    | | | +-----> Down
405	    | | | | +---> Ground
406	    | | | | |
407	  _____________
408	5 \ o o o o o / 1
409	   \ o o o o /
410	  9 `~~~~~~~' 6
411	     | | | |
412	     | | | +----> Select 2
413	     | | +------> Right
414	     | +--------> Left
415	     +----------> Power
416	
417	  Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the
418	parallel port.
419	
420	(pin 14) -----> Select 1
421	(pin 16) -----> Select 2
422	
423	  The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for
424	Multi joysticks using db9.c
425	
426	3. The drivers
427	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
428	  There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as
429	described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads.
430	Here are described their command lines:
431	
432	3.1 gamecon.c
433	~~~~~~~~~~~~~
434	  Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It
435	uses the following kernel/module command line:
436	
437		gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5
438	
439	  Where 'port' the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
440	
441	  And 'pad1' to 'pad5' are pad types connected to different data input pins
442	(10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file.
443	
444	  The types are:
445	
446		Type | Joystick/Pad
447		--------------------
448		  0  | None
449		  1  | SNES pad
450		  2  | NES pad
451		  4  | Multisystem 1-button joystick
452		  5  | Multisystem 2-button joystick
453		  6  | N64 pad
454		  7  | Sony PSX controller
455		  8  | Sony PSX DDR controller
456		  9  | SNES mouse
457	
458	  The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used, so
459	hot swapping should work (but is not recommended).
460	
461	  Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use
462	gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two
463	more parallel ports.
464	
465	  There are two options specific to PSX driver portion.  gamecon.psx_delay sets
466	the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should
467	work but you can try lowering it for better performance. If your pads don't
468	respond try raising it until they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the
469	driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are
470	registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes.
471	
472	3.2 db9.c
473	~~~~~~~~~
474	  Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the
475	db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line:
476	
477		db9.dev=port,type
478	
479	  Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
480	
481	  Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If
482	your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this.
483	Old parallel ports may not have this feature.
484	
485	  'Type' is the type of joystick or pad attached:
486	
487		Type | Joystick/Pad
488		--------------------
489		  0  | None
490		  1  | Multisystem 1-button joystick
491		  2  | Multisystem 2-button joystick
492		  3  | Genesis pad (3+1 buttons)
493		  5  | Genesis pad (5+1 buttons)
494		  6  | Genesis pad (6+2 buttons)
495		  7  | Saturn pad (8 buttons)
496		  8  | Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
497		  9  | Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out) 
498		 10  | Amiga CD32 pad
499	
500	  Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you
501	can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two
502	more joysticks/pads.
503	
504	3.3 turbografx.c
505	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
506	  The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line:
507	
508		turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7
509	
510	  Where 'port' is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
511	
512	  'jsX' is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the
513	interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1.
514	
515	  Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can
516	use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters
517	for two more interfaces.
518	
519	3.4 PC parallel port pinout
520	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
521			  .----------------------------------------.
522	   At the PC:     \ 13 12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1 /
523	                   \  25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 /
524	                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
525	
526		  Pin | Name    | Description
527		~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~
528		    1 | /STROBE | Strobe
529		  2-9 | D0-D7   | Data Bit 0-7
530		   10 | /ACK    | Acknowledge
531		   11 | BUSY    | Busy
532		   12 | PE      | Paper End
533		   13 | SELIN   | Select In
534		   14 | /AUTOFD | Autofeed
535		   15 | /ERROR  | Error
536		   16 | /INIT   | Initialize
537		   17 | /SEL    | Select
538		18-25 | GND     | Signal Ground
539	
540	3.5 End
541	~~~~~~~
542	  That's all, folks! Have fun!
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