Taito Egret II Mini Rollerball/Spinner Controller

[mukiex]

I can't overstate how janky this solution is, but in operation it works great. What I'm using: https://github.com/jfedor2/hid-remapper

It's literally a:

• Raspberry Pi Pico

• a motherboard USB host cable with the motherboard connector cut off

• 4 solder points to the Pi Pco

• some self-fusing tape to hold it all together.

The wiring is as follows, save for the blue in this picture probably being white on your cable: https://github.com/jfedor2/hid-remapper ... apper3.jpg

The configuration software has a "monitor" feature, which you can use to press buttons you wanna remap. Made it easy to figure out that 9001d was my left button, etc.

You can see how I mapped everything below:

It worked just fine in Puchi Carat on the Playstation core. With a 2nd Egret II Mini paddle and the Mr Spinner hack, you want to set the throttle to like, 150/145 or so for them to have similar movement.

At some point I'm gonna make a 2nd adapter for emulation, as Mame lets you map the mouse Y axis to player 2 and I can just map a 2nd adapter that way.

BTW, if anyone actually makes this janky thing as like, a cleaner plastic enclosure, please let me know. I'd rather buy this thing and make it.

[LeftEmpty]

I had read about this for using the controller with MAME, but didn't think it'd be as useful to the MiSTer.
I sadly have not the basic skill to even build it, so I'll wait for miracles, like Windows drivers and MiSTeR implementation!

[mukiex]

I had read about this for using the controller with MAME, but didn't think it'd be as useful to the MiSTer.
I sadly have not the basic skill to even build it, so I'll wait for miracles, like Windows drivers and MiSTeR implementation!

It's kinda disappointing that you can't buy a pre-assembled version of these, like a Brook or Mayflash USB adapter. Like, Adafruit sells one for $17, and you can find a 3D printed case pair (2 different styles in 1 package) at Etsy for $10, but that's $27 plus another ~$9 for Adafruit shipping and ~$4 for this Etsy page, a cool $40 for one Egret adapter that you still have to assemble and program.

[Lightwave]

I had read about this for using the controller with MAME, but didn't think it'd be as useful to the MiSTer.
I sadly have not the basic skill to even build it, so I'll wait for miracles, like Windows drivers and MiSTeR implementation!

It's kinda disappointing that you can't buy a pre-assembled version of these, like a Brook or Mayflash USB adapter. Like, Adafruit sells one for $17, and you can find a 3D printed case pair (2 different styles in 1 package) at Etsy for $10, but that's $27 plus another ~$9 for Adafruit shipping and ~$4 for this Etsy page, a cool $40 for one Egret adapter that you still have to assemble and program.

Hid Remapper also supports the $10 Waveshare RP2040-PiZero, which is ready to go and requires no soldering.

https://www.waveshare.com/rp2040-pizero.htm

There are many vendors on Aliexpress as well, here's an example for $11 including case and free shipping:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006278607259.html

[mukiex]

So after some additional tinkering and a SECOND pair of RP2040s, I got this controller working on both the MiSTer PSX core (via SNAC) and original hardware:

It wasn’t the cleanest soldering job, so I put both adapters in a project box and knotted the ends to minimize any tug that could disconnect a solder joint:

I used USB to PS1 Mouse Pro for the PSX adapter and HID remapper to get the exact mouse device I wanted out of the Egret II Mini.

I’m gonna go see if I can modify egret II mini detection directly into the PS1 adapter code, but all in all this isn’t a bad solution.

edit: Apologies if the images are huge, I originally edited/wrote this on my phone.

[LeftEmpty]

edit: and the quote didn't show so this appeared as a random rambling, haha!

[Fredpoulpe]

Okay, I've tried OG Arkanoid, NES Arkanoid, and PSX Puchi Carat, all with the Egret II Mini spinner controller with a throttle of 75.

It feels PERFECT. Will try Akranoid II next but if it's funky, it's probably not the MiSTer end of it.

edit: Yeah, it's the Jotego core. I added a [jtkiwi] section with the same settings as the others. I don't know what he's doing when Mr. Spinner type input comes in, but it's really odd. The Arkanoid arcade core doesn't have trouble with this and neither does Puchi Carat or Arkanoid Returns on Playstation (which admittedly are all pot-style/spinner controls with the neGcon protocol).

There's multiple sensitivity options between Lowest/Low/High/Highest on the Arkanoid II core and they all feel like playing through jelly. I would check with Jotego to see if he's implementing some kind of movement/speed curve, because that's the first thing you would basically wanna disable for this core to feel right on this controller with these settings.

What's funny is that with the spinner trick disabled, the trackball on this controller works with the core PERFECTLY.

I just got a ultimate spinner from ultimatespinner.com and I can confirm that it seems to be an issue with the jotego core not the controller. I get the same behaviour from the ultimate spinner and the Egret II mini spinner controller : the movement of the racket is jerky whatever the input. I hope that Jotego will work on it.