Autofire on ArcadeR Joystick + 2600-Daptor D9

[FoxbatStargazer]

So on some recommendations here I finally got an ArcadeR 9-pin "Atari Style" joystick. I'm connecting it to mister USB through the 2600-Daptor D9. (With 1ms USB polling script.) I got the second version of the PCB that includes jumpers/cables for adjusting most of the settings rather than having to solder everything.

The one issue I'm having is getting both auto-fire and third button working with mister. ("3rd button" being accessed by pressing 2nd button when you have the 2nd switch engaged) The 9-pin connector has two sockets on the PCB to plug into, the default "VCC on 7" as well as a "VCC on 5." On VCC on 7 I can use 3 buttons, but activating the auto-fire switch acts like the fire button is permanently pressed, even when not touching the fire button. On VCC on 5 auto-fire works as expected, when the switch is engaged, holding fire causes rapid-fire. However this also seems to disable button 3 from being detectable. It seems that VCC on 5 removing button 3 is expected behavior looking at the back of the manual with its pin layout diagrams, though I'm not 100% sure. If so I'd have to figure out how to get auto-fire working with VCC on 7.

Other settings, I have the one jumper set for Atari rather than C64. The other R1 jumper I removed (since it seems to be increasing power for 2nd button on amigas? Doesn't seem needed.) Finally left button is mapped to fire 1 on PCB and right button to fire 2 as default, didn't do any rewiring there. There's also a screw for "adjusting auto fire" but I haven't been able to figure out how it works even after turning it a bit.

[Chris23235]

I have the same Joystick connected with a Monster adapter and button 3 also doesn't work. From my understanding this is because the Monster adapter (and I think the 2600-Daptor too) don't work with more then 2 buttons, at least I also don't get a third button working when I connect my Genesis 9-Pin pad to the adapter.

EDIT: Nevermind, the Monster should support 3 and 6 button variants of the Genesis pad, so I seem to have set something not correct up. On a second thought, I think, I tried the ArcadeR first and the Genesis pad later and haven't set the new device up in the MiSTer main menu.

[FoxbatStargazer]

I went and plugged the daptor into a PC and took a peek at the controller tester in windows. There I could see that the VCC 5 mode does send some kind of signal, but it comes up as button 8 instead of button 4. Mister might not be seeing button 8 for whatever reason. You might also try plugging your USB solution into a PC and see what happens there as well.

The other issue is that I seem to have broken my auto-fire entirely by turning the "auto-fire adjust" screw on R2, no matter how I am jumpering things, with it engaged windows sees nothing whether pressing the primary fire or not. Supposedly the ArcadeR facebook group has info on how to adjust autofire (why isn't this in their manual or otherwise public?) but my approval is still pending.

[Chris23235]

Took another look at my ArcadeR and saw that the cable for the 2nd button that was installed by default was the single button cable. The dual button cable was still in the box. I tried pulling the cable from the button connectors but they sit firm and I don't want to break the contacts so I left it like it was. I don't use anything with this Joystick that needs a third button, so I don't care. I now have autofire on this button. Can't think of many useful cases for this too.

I never tried to change the autofire speed as it was exactly how I liked it. Pity that the FB group is private, my guess is there was to much drama going on about people waiting for their shipment from Retroradionics.

[FoxbatStargazer]

Pity that the FB group is private, my guess is there was to much drama going on about people waiting for their shipment from Retroradionics.

Lol I had this exact problem. I waited two weeks with a "processing" order and then wrote an email asking why it hadn't shipped yet, and then it arrived that afternoon. The order is still listed as "processing" even. It might help if their website was a little more informative!

Word to anyone else that goes through with this, make sure you pick the right option for your region (delivery to USA/Europe, I think the option w/out a region is actually for UK), and show several weeks of patience! And the USB option looks like it's shipping straight from China so maybe avoid that if you aren't willing to wait months.

[Lightwave]

Word to anyone else that goes through with this, make sure you pick the right option for your region (delivery to USA/Europe, I think the option w/out a region is actually for UK)

Hmm, it appears there is no applicable option for Canada...

[Chris23235]

For Europe there is an option to ship from within the EU wich worked well for me. I think it took 10 days or so to arrive at my doorstep.
I earlier ordered an ArcadeR without choosing the EU option and it took about 4 weeks which is pretty standard. But from what I read I was lucky with these 4 weeks as others waited several months. I would suggest to use the EU option if available, it works very well.
There are also several european webshops like sintech that list the ArcadeR as ready to ship.

[FoxbatStargazer]

Well the facebook group has declined me twice so I can't get access to the autofire tuning information. Real helpful "customer support" going on here.

[FoxbatStargazer]

So I got into the facebook group through another account. As far as I can tell the screw labeled R2 is supposed to be a potentiometer, you just turn it to near max for a decent autofire? But my screw doesn't appear to have a max or min, it just turns endlessly in either direction without getting looser or tighter. Not sure I understand what its supposed to be doing.

However I have made some discovery that makes me think the fault is more with the 2600-Daptor D9 than with the ArcadeR. If I hold fire button 1 right after connecting a USB cable to the daptor, I enter a mode where left fire activates button 1, right button activates 2 & 4 when using the right switch (or 2 & 8 if VCC 5 is used), and the left switch does nothing and prevents left fire from activating. However, if when connecting USB to the Daptor I instead hold right, this is supposed to trigger a "Atari 2600" mode for swapping between joysticks, paddles, etc. In this mode, the right fire button does nothing, but auto-fire works correctly on the left button. (i.e. when left switch is out, holding left button causes rapid presses of 1). So it seems likely that the ArcadeR is sending out rapid button presses when the auto-fire switch is engaged, but it is being misinterpreted in whatever mode is activated by holding down left fire button on startup. Of course if I use 2600 mode for the correct auto-fire by pressing right, then the secondary buttons do nothing...

Now the Daptor D9 never advertised that it "works with ArcadeR" joysticks, its trying to detect and support a variety of actual old hardware. I have no idea how ArcadeR is presenting three fire buttons in terms of what old controller it looks most similar to, but I'm guessing the issue is there. Would like to see if I can make good use of the Daptor D9 but maybe I need to order a different converter to make full use of this joystick.

[lamarax]

On a related note, has anyone tried the dedicated usb SNAC adapter with OG dual Atari paddles?

So far, only Nat has them available and I don't know if it's worth to take the hit (UK->EU)

[FoxbatStargazer]

If you want to get really nuts, someone has actually made a replacement PCB for the ArcadeR. This changes the joystick itself to push out signals over a USB cable. It also replaces the two top switches with buttons 3 & 4 that you can assign in mister, which seems more useful than having to swap to activate button 2 & 3 or an autofire I can't get recognized.

[Chris23235]

That's a nice board. I have a Daemonbite encoder for my Arcade Joystick and I am very happy with it. I don't need this board, I am happy with the Monster Adapter as I don't need more the 2 buttons when I use the ArcadeR, but I guess it is a good alternative for the USB ArcadeR that has a hefty 60 days pre order time.

[FoxbatStargazer]

Is there really no SNAC support for any computer cores like Minimig or Atari ST? That might be another way around this autofire issue, but it seems like only a handful of console cores support it?

[MrDo]

Just got an ArcadeR as well.

I tried turning up the auto fire adjuster a bit but the rate is still not fast enough for me. Anyone else have this problem? It feels like it’s at max. I don’t want to over turn it in case of damage.

[FoxbatStargazer]

I never got the ArcadeR autofire to work well with the 2600-Daptor. I did find someone who made a custom ArcadeR PCB that itself output USB which I've been using instead. It turned the two switches at the top into extra programmable buttons so you had 4 buttons to program Mister with and can just use Mister's built-in autofire via home button.

I did plug an original ArcadeR into an actual AtariST and the autofire worked great there. The autofire limitation you are running into might be more on the USB adapter side than the joystick itself. At a bare minimum you will want to make sure that Mister's USB polling rate is 1 ms (run the appropriate script from update_all if you haven't)

[rhester72]

True classic joystick autofire will never work with a USB adapter because it depends on fluttering a +5V line that is provided by real computers and consoles of the era but not USB adapters.

[MrDo]

I never got the ArcadeR autofire to work well with the 2600-Daptor. I did find someone who made a custom ArcadeR PCB that itself output USB which I've been using instead. It turned the two switches at the top into extra programmable buttons so you had 4 buttons to program Mister with and can just use Mister's built-in autofire via home button.

I did plug an original ArcadeR into an actual AtariST and the autofire worked great there. The autofire limitation you are running into might be more on the USB adapter side than the joystick itself. At a bare minimum you will want to make sure that Mister's USB polling rate is 1 ms (run the appropriate script from update_all if you haven't)

Thanks for the info.

So I got accepted into the Facebook group and it appears this autofire thing is a known issue. Other people have complained it only fires in bursts instead of a constant rapid fire, which is exactly the issue I’m seeing. It could be something to do with the 555 timer used. Apparently it was fixed in a revised board but I have the latest version and it’s still there.

Some people have reported to set it just below max which oddly fixed it (or maybe just improved?) for them. I’ll try this myself.

I didn’t know about the USB polling rate setting so I’ll try that too.

I wouldn’t mind using Mister’s built in autofire but it seems it only works if you have the OSD button mapped on the controller. Given the ArcadeR only has 2 buttons it’s not going to work for me. I wish there was another way to do it, seems a bit stupid. Perhaps I could map OSD to pressing both fire buttons simultaneously. I don’t think it would cause problems, as I’ll only use the joystick with Minimig.

[MrDo]

True classic joystick autofire will never work with a USB adapter because it depends on fluttering a +5V line that is provided by real computers and consoles of the era but not USB adapters.

Missed your message earlier. That’s really good to know actually and explains why it’s a bit flakey.

So in the end I mapped Joystick MENU button to Left+F2 and then turned on Mister’s autofire on F1. Works better than native autofire. But one issue I’ve seen with Battle Squadron on Minimig is the 360deg maneuvre (to use bomb) doesn’t work, but it does with native one.

No perfect solution unfortunately.