Since my G7400 is RGB capable now and connectable to my Beamer via an OSSC and it is also a pure fun machine when it comes to 2 player action i decided to find a way making Wireless Controller for it… |
I really love the G7000/G7400 or Odyssey and whatever it has been called when it comes to 2 player sessions. This is always fun, altough the graphics are really bad and the console beeing older than 40 years. Now that i have modded my G7400 with to RGB Signal which looks perfect even on my beamer i decided to build 2 wireless Controllers for the G7400 so that it is also playable in front of the beamer without tossing the console around.
Step 1: Concept
I searched a little bit on the internet but did not found anyone who has done this yet,.. well a goood motivation for me.. After some short brainstromings and 2 beers later i thought about these Nunchuk64 Boards which allow a Commodore 64 being controlled with Wii-Controllers. But if you buy one of these nes-clone-china-crap wireless controllers for the nes mini it is also possible to operate them on the Nunchuk64.
Well the controller interface of the C64 is a simple routing of all the buttons against one main line (ground) without any other electronics unlike a PS4 Controller which has 10000x more power and electronics inside than the whole G7400
The G7400 Controller work the same way as the C64 one, so i only had to connect the lines of the Nunchuk C64 Ports to the G7400 ports
Step 2: Wire Nunchuk64 board to G7400
This step is fairly straight forward. i checked the pinout of the G7400 and the C64 and mapped the signal lines 1:1. 5V Power was taken from the G7400 internal Powersupply but later from a dedicated power supply for reasons which are described later
Step 3: Build the wireless Controller
This part was more tricky so i will describe it in some sub-steps..
Prepare the G7400 Controller
This one is easy, just open up the controller, (mine is the one with physical switches, not the 2 foil switch thingy) disconnect the cable and there you go
Next i cleaned all the switches with a piece of paper or better a fine sandpaper and isopropanol, because they all become unresonsive over time.
Next i tensioned the spring to have more resistance leading the stick go back to its neutral position again
The Fire button,.. this piece of crap easily breaks and the button itself gets loose and lost. I used two of many g7000 controllers i have which had this issue and decided to design and 3D Print me new buttons to overcome this issue
My Button design is found under: Button for Philips Videopac G7000/G7400/Magnavox Odyssey by nad_22 – Thingiverse
Prepare the board of the wireless Controller
The board of the wireless controller is bigger than the G7400 case so i had to cut it down. The only possible way was to cut the right part away which consists of the Action Buttons and the connection signal LED. Also the Quarz has to be relocated so that the board fits into the controller. I used some double sided tape to fix the board onto the controllers upper shell.
Connect the Board to the G7400 Controller + Power Supply
I chose a simple way of realising the power supply by adding a simple 2xaaa battery holder into the case,.. this will be optimized some other time because i have to open the case if i want to swap old batteries.. but for now this is ok
Next i decided to remove the original fire button and replace it with a micro switch for better haptic of the controller
Next i revealed the copper on the signal lines from the wireless controller board, because i cutted the thing in half and there were no other solder points to use. I decided to use ultra thin wires which do not put any pressure on the pcb lines while opening/closing the controller
Next i connected everything togheter, power supply, Action button, direction switches
Next i added one status LED to the case to display the connection status, and another micro switch to power up the controller (which is usually done by pressing start on the wireless controller)
Step 4: Test !
I powered everything up, the controller connected successfully to the Nunchuk64 Controller an BAM, everything was working. Fully motivated i build the second controller
Step 5: Test 2 Controllers simultaneously
Next Test, both controllers connected fine to the Nunchuk64 but after the tests i faced 2 Problems:
- The Controllers pair like “oh i was quicker, i am player one”, next time “damn to slow i am player 2 now”
- Player two, not depending which controller is player 2 at the time could only go up and down, but not left or right
Problem 1 was fixed by leading the “mode” switch out to the case with the indicator led. Now it was possible to swap the controllers,… not sexy but it worked so far
Problem 2: i had no fucking clue what this causes.. it seems that there is some incompatibility with the china controllers i bought and the Nunchuk64.. after some trying, resetting, taking out one receiver from the Nunchuk i discovered, that after power on with only one receiver and some seconds later if i connect the second receiver both are working normally !! Weird but ok,.. this is usabel for a workaround !
Step 6: Fix controller swapping and P2 “left-right” issue
I cut the power line of the second controller port and added a simple NE555 timer solution with a reed relay which connects the power line again after about 5 seconds after the g7400 was powered on. This solves both problems i described before,.. if i pair the first controller during this 5 second time frame it will always be Player 1. After the 5 seconds the second receiver gets powered on leading into a full functional state !!
Because of the 5V Lane of the G7400 original PSU beeing very weak i which leads to strange resets after the reed relay was triggered i installed a dedicated power supply (cracked open one of my old blackberry usb power supplys and installed the pcb) for the Nunchuk64 board.
Can’t wait for shit fucking crap corona pandemy to stop and invite some friends for the next Videpac Session !!!
Surely this also works with the NES Clone wireless Controllers 😛
Battery Case
My first attempt to glue a battery holder into the case was ok but not very maintenance-friendly. So i decided to design and 3D print a battery housing which has been mounted into the controllers case. Its a quick and dirty design but perfect for my need.
You can find the designs here: Philips G7400 / Odyssey 2 Wireless Controller Battery Housing by nad_22 – Thingiverse
Nice Hack!
Thanks !!