[Help] Mr. Spinner for Arkanoid

[jayp76]

Hello,

today i soldered two Arduinos. One for Sega Genesis and one for the Atari Paddles.
The Sega Genesis on is working fine and tested it with the 8bitdo M30 2.4Ghz.
The PaddleTwoControllersUSB does not. I do not know what is missing.
I soldered all cables and made the modifications to the Atari Paddles. I checked all cables with the beeper and re-checked wiring diagram.
I flashed the software and checked with joy.cpl under windows. There are two Arduinos visible and identify as "Arduino Leonardo". The buttons work and the axis seems to move when rotating the potentiometers. Then i connected it to the MiSTer, started Arkanoid and changed input to spinner. But it does not work.
Do i have to change something in the source code before flashing?
Do i have to map something in MiSTer Menu?

Every help is appreciated.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Retro-C ... rollersUSB

[jayp76]

I also tested it with the Atari2600 core and the game Breakout. Still no luck. I am out of options.

[Heatvent]

Any chance this is working on Mister. I am trying to build the PaddleTwoControllersUSB adaptor but can't seem to get Mister to recognize this as a controller. Windows joystick calibration sees it just fine. Pretty frustrating.

[Slein]

Hi!
Afaik Mr.Spinner is recognised by Mister via a special ID and will be treated differently, not like a standerd gamepad.
Start arkanoid and switch control to spinner in its config menu.
If windows shows the wheel and dial all should be ok.

[Heatvent]

Can this be used with the Atari 2600 core or does this just work with Arkanoid (certain cores)? Really just want this for the C64 and 2600 paddle games.

Thanks!

[Slein]

It works with both cores.
I played Arkanoid on c64 and Super Breakout an Atari 2600 to test.

[Heatvent]

So I got Arkanoid running and set the input to Spinner. Still don't see any way to configure the paddles and they don't seem to work. Tried rebooting, holding in the button, etc. still no luck. Would you mind walking me through the exact steps I am supposed to do. The paddles do show up in Windows as a wheel and dial and I am able to calibrate both of the paddles so I don't believe its an issue with the Arduino or wiring. I have paddle_support enabled and 2 devices in the arduino code. Not sure what is the issue here.

[Slein]

I reread the the whole thread and it looks like i misunderstood what you two are doing. I thought you were using a rotary encoder (spinner), but paddles are using a potentiometer.
To test i soldered a paddle (potentiometer).

The arcade Arkanoid needs a spinner (rotary encoder), with that it will work like i described above. I believe Sorgelig modified his 2600 paddle that way in this thread.

But the paddles work fine in Atari 2600 and C64 core.
First you need to comment "#define PADDLE_EMU" in the PaddleTwoControllersUSB firmware but leave "#define PADDLE_SUPPORT" in there.
I used Super Breakout on Atari 2600 to test. Load Super Breakout in the core, then replug the paddles and press a paddle button, the osd should show "P1 paddle/spinner" and the baton should move by the paddle.
On C64 core set Swap Joysticks: No, User Port: Joysticks, Pot 1&2: Paddles 1&2, Pot 3&4: Joy 2 Fire 2/3.
Then i did the same as on Atari 2600, load Arkanoid, replug paddles and push paddle button to show "P1 paddle/spinner" in osd, select paddle control in Arkanoid game and start playing.

Hope this helps!

[Heatvent]

Slein, thanks for the reply. I believe I have the same settings on the arduino code ... but just to be sure I opened a fresh version of the paddletwocontrolersUSB firmware and commented out PADDLE_EMU and left the rest as is.

I loaded Super Breakout and when I plug in the paddles, I definitely don't get the same behavior. Actually, nothing happens when pressing the paddle button. I would like to say it's my wiring of the pot to the negative lead but this should have no bearing on the button press and I think this is working fine in Windows. I will have to troubleshoot a bit more but it is helpful to see what should work.

I dropped into linux and used dmesg. I see the USB device Arduino Leonardo with the SerialNumber MiSTer-S1 Spinner. It shows up as a USB HID v1.01 Joystick. So it looks like it is there and I think MiSTer uses the MiSTer-S1 Spinner serial number to identify this for use as a spinner / paddle ????

What would be nice is a test program or if the joystick setup would somehow let you check spinners/paddles.

[Slein]

One more idea: which of the buttons did you wire? Paddle1 Btn, Paddle2 Btn or Spinner Btn?
Pressing Spinner Btn will disable the Paddles (potentiometer) and pressing Paddle1/2 Btn will enable the potentiometer for Paddle1/2.
Learned that a minute ago...

The potentiometer should be one end at VCC, one end at GND and analog input to the middle.

[Heatvent]

I just did the paddle buttons:

DB9 Arduino Paddle
3 3 Paddle2 Btn
4 4 Paddle1 Btn
5 A0 Paddle1 Pot
7 VCC VCC
8 GND GND
9 A1 Paddle2 Pot

I noticed the behavior in Windows. The paddles didn't work until I pressed the button. I did solder a wire from the open pot terminal to the black ground wire on the switch. I think I did this right but should probably check with a multimeter to be sure. The paddles worked in Windows so I am thinking all is OK but I need to go back to square 1 and walk through the steps again to double-check everything.

Thanks again for all the help!

[Slein]

I think i found the problem
Mister only detects the MrSpinner the first time after bootup if there is movement on the spinner, which you don't have. After replugging a paddle button is enough.
I might have touched the spinner on my MrSpinner during testing earlier today

Please try the attached firmware, it reports movement on the spinner when the paddle buttons are pressed the first time.
Load the atari 2600 core, load Super Breakout, replug the paddle and press the paddle button. Now it should show the OSD message.

This finally should make your paddles work.

[Heatvent]

That worked! Shows up as spinner/paddle in Super Breakout. A little jittery but likely needs to be cleaned again. Was this a simple edit? Just wondering if I should propose to make this change in the github project.

Thanks!

[Slein]

Good news, happy that it works
I don't think its a paddle firmware problem, Mister itself should detect the paddles not only when then spinner moves. They should be detected on paddle movement too (and/or button presses).
The changes only make it report a small spinner movement on the first paddle button press, this forces Mister to detect the paddles.
(and theres no spinner support in it, paddles only to not interfere with testing)

And, replugging is not necessary.
The paddles work in C64 core too, just assign paddles to the joystick ports in the cores menu. May need to swap joysticks on some games.

Edit:
Really think about using an incremental encoder. The 600p/r ones from china are not terribly expensive, big knobs can be 'borrowed' from old hifi equipment and putting a little weight in them (nuts, bolts, lead) makes control feel much more satisfying. No glitches too!

[Heatvent]

Thanks, I will look into it. Just FYI, looking at the github for the Atari 2600 core, they mentioned the following ...

Paddle

It's recommended to use mr.Spinner for paddles.

Supported options for paddle:

• "Paddle Btn" is pressed - mr.Spinner (or known controllers with integrated paddle/spinner) is used .
  "Stick Btn" is pressed - Analog Stick X/Y is used (maximum angle will choose X or Y).
  Mouse button L/R is pressed - mouse controlls the P1 paddle (L - X move, R - Y move).

As written, I would expect this to already work (at least for the 2600 core) ... press paddle button if using Mr. Spinner. Strange it had to be modified.

[Heatvent]

FYI, the paddle detection with Mr. Spinner was fixed in the latest version of Mister. The stock PaddleTwoControllersUSB firmware now works properly!

[sonik]

I want to adapt an atari 2600 paddle to use with mister.
On the mr.Spinner github page it says:

You need to connect unconnected 3rd pin of potentiometer to a black wire of button (ground pin)

This will make it not compatible with real atari hardware?

[Heatvent]

Someone with more experience should probably weigh in but I believe that is correct. Easily undone if needed ... you just have to get a set of paddles separate for the mister and one for the atari.

[sonik]

A simple switch could be used to connect/disconnect the ground pin.
But I would like to keep it in it's original form. Those things are not cheap at least where I live.