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PSX Controller Tools

Download PSX Controller Tools v1.4 DJGPP/Linux (127 Kbytes) 07/11/99

Download PSX Controller Tools v1.4 Win32 DLL (66 Kbytes) 26/09/99

Abstract

The PSX Controller Tools are a couple of programs that will allow you to detect and test your Controllers and the DirectPad Pro, MegaTap or PlaySave (tested, not yet working) parallel port interfaces.

These tools were written using the PSX Peripheral Bus Library 1.4.

Details

As far as I'm aware, the different types of Playstation controllers are: Digital, Analog, Dual Shock, Mouse, negCon, G-con45, Jogcon, Konami Lightgun and Multi Tap. Note that this includes controllers that behave as if they were one of the above, eg. most steering wheels behave as if they are a negCon. It is possible that the ASCII Sphere acts as a different controller to those above, but I don't have one to try out.

I have tested (and found working) each type of controller except for the Konami Lightgun. Here is a list of tested controllers:

Sony Controller - working
Sony Analog Controller - working
Sony Dual Shock Controller - working
Sony Mouse - working
Sony Multi Tap - working
Namco neGcon - working
Namco G-con45 - working
Namco Jogcon - working, but force feedback commands unknown
Madkatz Steering Wheel - working, but twitchy (problem with the controller)
Ascii Resident Evil Pad - working
Twin Stick - working, but ghost controller connected to a Multi Tap
Blaze Pro-Shock Arcade Stick - working
Puchi Carat paddle - not working (behaves as neGcon)

The G-con45 needs to be connected to (and pointed at) a TV type monitor connected to your computer. The composite video out on my old video card (a Stingray 128/3D) worked fine for this. I haven't tested this yet on my new video card, a TNT2 Ultra.

The Sony Dual Shock or Namco Jogcon will reset themselves (to digital mode) after not being polled for 5 seconds. This is normal, the same thing happens on a Playstation, it's meant to stop any vibration in case the host machine crashes. Other mode switching controllers may have similar quirks.

Some people have reported problems with the scan delay set at 3 (default) causing them twitchy controls (this depends on particular controllers and the speed of your processor). Machines with a processor clocked at 600MHz or greater are sometimes affected by this. To fix this drivers based on the library code should only update movement data when valid data is returned by psx_controller_read().

There are also problems with some Steering Wheels, which occasionally return bad data no matter what the delay is. This is NOT a problem with psxpblib, the same happens on a real Playstation.

Each of the tools can be configured using a cfg file and command line parameters. The options are:

  • -lpt (1 to 3) - which parallel port to use.
  • -del (1 to 10) - which time delay to use, default 3.

When you run one of the tools for the first time a cfg file called psxpblib.cfg will be created in the current directory. Each of the tools share this file. When it is first created you will have to specify the parallel port. The con and tap options in the cfg file will be ignored.

The command line parameters take precedence over the cfg file, but do not change the settings in the cfg file.

PSX Controller Detect (psxcnd):

  • This tool will print a list of all the Controllers it can detect attached to the specified parallel port.

PSX Controller Test (psxcnt):

  • This tool will continually scan a Controller and print a bit-by-bit display of all the data returned.

These tools are for the DirectPad Pro, MegaTap and PlaySave parallel port interfaces. See DirectPad Pro, PlaySave and Simon Nield's site for wiring schematics. I would recommend using a power supply similar to Simon's which supplies +3.5V DC, and NOT +5.0V DC as in the DirectPad Pro schematics.

I would also recommend that if you are about to build a psx controller parallel port interface that you buy an extension lead and a Multi tap, and rewire the extension lead as port one of the DirectPad Pro interface. This is just about the easiest way to connect four controllers, and then you can read Memory Cards through the Multi tap too ;)

Further details are included in the archive.


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Content Copyright Richard Davies 2003
Graphics Copyright Weebl 2003
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